Columbia  23nttier^itp 

tntl)eCttpof3!ettjgork 


LIBRARY 


PURCHASED  FROM 
THE 

WILLIAM  C.  SCHERMERHORN 
MEMORIAL  FUND 


DISSERTATIONS 


SUBJECTS  RELATING 


"  ORTHODOX"  OR  "  EASTERN  •CATHOLIC- 
COMMUNION. 


BY   WILLIAM    PALMER,   Ml., 

FELLOW    OF     ST.    MARY     MAGDALEN    COLLKGE,    OXFORD,    AND    DEACON. 


LONDON: 

JOSEPH    MASTERS,    ALDERSGATE    STREET, 

AND  NEW  POND  STREET. 


MDCCCLin. 


1^^ 


<^  -^r  4 


LONDON : 

PUINTKI)    IIT    JOSKPH    lUASTKRS    AVI)    n 

AI.IIKIISOATK      STRRKT. 


^ 


CENSORS  OF  THE  PRESS  IN  RUSSIA, 

OR    TO 
WHATEVER    AUTHORITIES,     SPIRITUAL  OR  CIVIL,    ARE    ABOVE    THE    CENSORS, 

STljis  Volume  is  submittcU, 

WITH    THE    WISH    TO    LEARN    WHETHER    A    TRANSLATION    OF    IT, 
WOULD  BE  PERMITTED  TO  APPEAR  IN   THAT  COUNTRV. 


C  0  i\  T  E  N  T  S. 


DISSERTATION  I. 


Of  the  distinctive   title,    present    state,    and  apparent   prospects   of    the 
"  Orthodox  ''  Communion     .........        I 


DISSERTATION  II. 

Of  the  present  apparent  conflict  between  "Orthodoxy  "  and  "Catholicism  "       9 

DISSERTATION  III. 

The  Aspect  of  the  Russian  part  of  the  "  Orthodox  "  Church  at  the  com- 
mencement  of  the  Reformation  of  Luther  ;  being  "  An  Account  of  the 
religion  of  the  Muscovites,  written  by  John  Faber  for  Ferdinand  King  of 
the  Romans,  to  whom  he  was  Confessor,'"  a.d.  1525      .         .         .         .32 

DISSERTATION  IV. 

Destinies  of  the  Slavonic  Empire. — Probation  and  failure  of  John  IV.  (the 
first  solemnly  crowned  Tsar  of  Muscovy)  in  the  sixteenth  century         .         46 

DISSERTATION  V. 

Destinies  of  the  Slavonic  Empire. — Probation  and  failure  of  the  Tsar  Alexis  >r 

Michaelovich,  with   the  Nobility  and  Hierarchy  of  Russia,  in   the  seven- 
teenth century       .......-■.■     ^ I 

DISSERTATION  VI 

Of  Civil  Government,  Obedience,  and  Liberty,  in  relation  to  orthodox 
Christianity        ...-••         .....         74 


VI  CONTENTS. 

PACE 

DISSERTATION  Vll. 

Rellections  on  the  riglit  method  of  conductinj^  religious  controversy    .  .     96 

DISSERTATION   VIII. 

Remarks    on    tlie   present   state    of    particular   controversies    between    the 

"  Orthodox  "  and  the  "  Roman-Catholic''  Churches  .         .  102 

/i.   Of  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit 102 

ill.   Of  the  Roman  and  Papal  Supremacy 105 

III.  Of  Western  Baptisms  without  Trine  Immersion      ....  107 

IV.  Of  the  Controversy  respecting  Priests  applying  the  Holy  Chrism  113 
V.  Of  Azymes 117 

VI.  Of  the  Form  of  Consecration  in  the  Liturgy        .         .         .         .118 

VII.  Of  the  position  of  the  Great  Oblation 121 

VIII.  Of  Communion  under  one  kind  only  ......        123 

IX.  Of  the  state  of  the  Saints  before  the  last  Judgment  .  .         .124 

X.  Of  Purgatory    .         .         .         .         .         •         •         •         •         .124 

XI.  Of  Indulgences      .         .         .         .         •         •         •         •         •         .126 

xn.  Of  the  Last  Unction 130 

XIII.  Of  the  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy 132 

XIV.  Of  the  Latin  Fasts 132 

XV.  Of  the  free  use  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 135 

XVI.  Of  Church  Services  in  a  tongue  no  longer  understood  by  the  people  136 
XVII.  Of  Persecution  .......•••       139 

XVIII.  Of  the  existence  of    reputed  Saints  and  Miracles  in  both  Com- 
munions .         •         .         •         •         •         •         •         .143 

XIX.  Of  Immutability  and  Novelty,  as  characteristic  of  the  two  Churches 

respectively    ....         •         •  ...       144 

DISSERTATION  IX 

Of  the  bearing  of  the  theory  of  Doctrinal  Development  on  the  controversy 
between  the  Orthodox  and  the  Roman-Catholic  Churches         .         .         .147 

DISSERTATION  X. 

On  the  Controversy  respecting  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  154 

DISSERTATION   XI. 

Certain  Opinions  prevalent  in  the   Greek  part  of  the  Eastern   Orthodox 
Church  res))ecting  Baptism    .......••    lt»3 


CONTENTS.  Vll 


DISSERTATION   XII. 

Translation  of  a  Memorial  presented  to  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
Kyr  Kyr  Anthitnus,  July  the  24th,  N.S.,  1851 178 


DISSERIATION    XIII. 

Four  Documents,   three  against  and  one  for   the  practice   of  rebaptizing 
Western  Christians  .184 

I.  Extracts  from  the  "  Travels  of  Macarius,  Patriarch  of  Antioch,'' 
(being  a  narrative  of  that  Patriarch's  first  journey  to  and  stay 
in  Russia,  from  a.d.  1654  to  1656,)  written  by  his  Archdeacon, 
Paul,  in  Arabic,  and  published  in  English  by  the  Oriental  Trans- 
lation Fund 1^^ 

II.  Extracts  from  the  MS.  Acts  of  the  Synod  held  at  Moscow,  a.d. 
1666—1667,  for  the  deposition  of  the  Patriarch  Nicon         .         .188 

III.  "A  Letter  [dated  August  31,  1718,]  to  the  Emperor  Peter  I. 
from  Jeremiah  III.,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  directing  that 
Lutherans  and  Calvinists  coming  over  to  the  Orthodox  Greek 
Faith  are  not  to  be  rebaptized,  but  are  to  be  anointed  with  Holy 
Chrism  "         .  .  •         .  •  •  •  •         .        I J7 

IV.  "  A  Constitution  of  the  Holy  Church  of  Christ  [a.d.  1756] 
defending  the  Holy  Baptism  given  from  God,  and  spitting  upon 
the  Baptisms  of  the  heretics  which  are  otherwise  administered  "    .   199 


DISSERTATION    XIV. 

Of  the  word  and  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation 204 

DISSERTATION   XV. 

Of  the  necessity  of  Confession  to  a  Priest 227 

DISSERTATION    XVI. 

On  the  Septenary  Number  of  the  Mysteries  or  Sacraments  .  .         ,  236 

DISSERTATION    XVII. 

Of  the   Invocation   and  Worship   of   Saints,  and  especially  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin '^^'^ 

DISSERTATION   XVIII. 
Of  the  Worship  or  Veneration  of  Icons  and  Relics 261 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

PACK 

DISSERTATION    XIX. 

Of  Credulity  and  Superstition         ........       272 

DISSERTATION   XX. 

Of  Formalism,  as  imputed  to  the  Eastern  Church       .....  284 

DISSERTATION   XXI. 

Of  the  parallel  and  contrast  existing  between  the  Reforming  Sectaries  of 
the  West  and  the  Anti- Reforming  Sectaries  of  the  East  of  Europe  296 

DISSERTATION   XXII. 

An  Enumeration  of  certain  things  which  seem  to  be  desirable  for  the  Eastern 
Orthodox  Church 305 

DISSERTATION   XXIII. 

Of  the  duty  of  making  special  concerted  Prayers  for  the  reunion  of  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Churches  :  And  of  a  future  Qicunipiiical  Synod  .       312 

DISSERTATION   XXIV. 

Of  the  Apocaly)itic  Epistles  addressed  to  the  Seven  Churches  nf  Asi.-t  .   ."^22 


u 


DISSERTATIONS 


ON    SUBJECTS    REI.ATINf:    TO    THE 


ORTHODOX"  COMMUNION 


DISSERTATION  I. 

OF    THE    DISTINCTIVE    TITLE,    PRESENT     STATE,    AND     APPARENT 
PROSPECTS    OF    THE    "  ORTHODOX '^    COMMUNION. 

After  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  of  Solomon  at  Jerusalem 
four  heathen  nations,  the  Babylonian,  the  Medo-Persian,  the 
Greek,  and  the  Roman,  successively  subjugated  and  occupied 
the  fairest  portion  of  the  then  inhabited  earth,  (t^5  olxoy/xe'vrjj,) 
the  portion  which  contained  within  itself  the  germs  of  that 
human  civilization,  and  of  that  divine  religion  which  were  in 
after  ages  to  overspread  the  whole  globe. 

None  of  those  four  nations  ever  really  ruled  over  the  whole 
inhabited  earth,  or  the  whole  eartli  then  built  upon  with  fixed 
dwellings ;  but  all  of  them  claimed  and  aspired  after  universal 
empire ;  each  of  them  in  turn  swallowed  up  and  surpassed  in 
extent  of  dominion  its  predecessor ;  and  each  in  turn  gave  or 
continued  the  name  of  "  the  world  "  {r^g  olxou/x-svijj)  to  that  por- 
tion of  the  world  (the  most  central  and  the  most  important) 
which  owned  its  sway. 

In  the  days  of  the  fourth  Empire,  the  Roman,  the  Most  High 
set  up  a  fifth  Empire,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth,  or,  in 
other  words,  the  Christian  Church,  which  aspired,  like  those 
four  which  it  followed  and  in  part  supplanted,  to  subject  to  itself 
the  whole  habitable  earth,  that  is,  to  become  visibly  oecumenical, 
universal,  or  Catholic,  in  respect  of   places,  and  countries,  and 


B 


a  OF    TtlE     niSTINCTIVE    TITLE 

nations,  and  invisibly  or  spiritually  universal  in  a  still  wider  sense, 
embracing  retrospectively  and  prospectively  the  elect  of  all  races 
and  of  every  religious  dispensation. 

The  oIhov[x,svyi  or  world  of  the  Roman  Empire,  being  a  compact 
mass,  and  consisting  of  the  countries  lying  around  the  Mediter- 
ranean, was  from  the  foundation  of  Constantinople  or  new  Rome 
divided  into  two  great  halves  or  lobes,  the  "  Eastern  "  and 
the  "  Western,"  Empires  within  an  Empire,  at  first  united,  after- 
wards separate  and  even  hostile;  in  one  of  which  the  Greek,  in 
the  other  the  Latin  tongue  predominated. 

The  Christian  Church  converting  and  incorporating  into  itself 
the  population  of  the  Roman  world,  and  triumphing  openly  in 
the  time  of  Constantine,  and  thenceforth  entering  into  close 
relations  with  the  civil  Empire,  became  itself  also  oecumenical  in 
the  Roman  sense,  that  is,  the  Church  of  the  Roman  v;orld,  (r^j 
olxou|X5v>);,)  and  with  the  Roman  Empire  came  to  be  outwardly 
distinguishable  into  two  great  masses  or  lobes,  the  '^  Eastern  " 
and  the  "  Western,''  the  "  Greek  "  and  the  "Latin." 

The  Western  Roman  Empire  being  overrun  by  barbarous  na- 
tions came  to  an  end  ;  but  its  language,  laws,  and  civilization,  and 
the  religion  of  its  Christian  inhabitants  being  communicated  to 
those  nations  which  overran  it,  it  was  in  a  certain  sense  restored 
and  revived  in  the  Frankish  and  in  the  German-Roman  Empires 
of  the  West.  Thus  the  oixouju,=v»j  or  habitable  world,  instead  of 
being  curtailed,  expanded  wdth  the  changes  of  the  West ;  and 
the  Church  which  expanded  with  it,  and  which  was  in  great 
measure  the  cause  of  its  expansion,  still  preserved  its  aspect  of 
Western  geographically,  of  Latin  m  ritual  and  language,  and  of 
Roman  from  the  seat  of  its  central  government. 

From  the  middle  of  the  ninth  at  the  earliest,  or  of  the  eleventh 
century  at  the  latest,  the  Churches  of  the  original  Eastern  and 
of  the  renewed  Western  Euipire,  which  had  been  before  as  two 
great  lobes  of  one  body,  were  separated  in  communion  the  one 
from  the  other.  Still,  the  idea  of  there  being  but  one  olxoup.evij  or 
civilized  world,  consisting  of  the  double  Roman  Empire,  survived  ; 
and  also  the  idea  of  there  being  but  one  Church,  corresponding 
to  the  oBcumenicity  of  the  double  Roman  Empire,  and  aspiring  in 
principle  to  be  also  Catholic  or  universal  in  the  widest  sense, 
subsisted  still  on  both  sides. 


OF    THE    "ORTHODOX        COMMUNION.  6 

The  Western  part  of  tlie  civil  and  religious  "  world  "  lost 
some  ground  in  Africa  and  in  Spain  from  the  inroads  of  the 
infidels,  and  gained  still  more  by  the  accession  of  the  Teutonic 
and  Scandinavian  nations,  partly  after  but  chiejly  before  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  two  Chui'ches.  The  Eastern  part  of  the  civil  and 
religious  world  suffered  much  greater  losses  from  the  inroads  of 
heresy  and  Mahometanism,  and  gained  more  in  extent,  but  less 
in  population,  by  the  gradual  accession  of  the  Slavonian  tribes 
and  countries ;  and  these  losses  and  gains  of  the  Eastern  Church 
occurred  imrtly  before  but  mainly  after  the  separation  of  the  two 
Churches. 

With  some  inconsiderable  and  temporary  exceptions,  those 
civil  and  rehgious  developments  and  expansions  which  arose  out 
of  the  destruction  and  restoration  of  the  Empire  of  the  West  and 
the  conversion  of  the  Teutonic  nations,  continued  to  be  geogra- 
phically Western  in  relation  to  the  Eastern  Empire  and  Church. 
And  those  expansions  of  Christianity  and  of  the  ideal  civil  oixou- 
jxevrj,  or  world,  towards  the  North,  which  were  owing  to  the  Eastern 
Church  and  Empire,  were  all  still  geographically  Eastern  in 
relation  to  the  Western  Church,  so  that  these  two  distinctive 
epithets  of  "  Eastern "  and  "  Western "  down  to  the  fall  of 
Constantinople  in  the  fifteenth  century  lost  nothing  of  their 
relative  propriety. 

In  like  manner,  the  Western  developments  and  expansions 
carried  with  them  everywhere  both  ecclesiastically  and  civilly 
the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue,  the  Latin  ritual,  and  much  of  Latin 
law  and  civilization.  And  the  Eastern  expansions  carried  with 
them  ecclesiastically  if  not  the  Greek  tongue  yet  at  least  the 
Greek  ritual,  and  civilly  from  the  first  much  of  Greeco-Roman 
law  and  civilization,  and  eventually  (after  the  fall  of  Constanti- 
nople in  1453,)  the  idea  of  a  Slavonic  representation,  restora- 
tion, and  enlargement  of  the  Grseco-Eastern  Empire  analogous 
to  the  revival  and  enlargement  of  the  Latin  Western  Empire  by 
the  Franks  and  Germans. 

Thus  the  two  Churches,  which  originally  corresponded  to  the 
two  lobes  of  one  united  Roman  "  world  "  and  Empire,  and  whose 
union  outlasted  the  civil  separation  of  the  East  and  West,  survived 
at  length  each  of  them  those  parts  or  subordinate  Empires  in  the 
Roman  duality  with  which  they  had  been  respectively  connected, 

B  2 


4)  OP    THE    DISTINCTIVE    TITLE 

and  came  to  be  associated  with  a  new  civil  duality,  the  Gcr 
man  Latin  and  the  Grrcco-SlavoniCj  in  a  wider  and  expanded 
world  or  oUov jxivr),  without  there  ensuing  in  consequence  down 
to  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  any  change  of  relative  atti- 
tude in  the  two  bodies,  or  any  considerable  impropriety  in 
the  continued  application  of  their  former  distinctive  titles  of 
Greek  and  Latin,  Western  and  Eastern,  to  each  Communion 
respectively. 

But  the  discovery  of  America,  the  circumnavigation  of  the 
globe,  the  vast  extension  of  commerce,  conquests,  and  colonies, 
over  all  parts  of  its  surface,  has  expanded  the  ideal  oixou/xs'v);  to 
its  natural  and  utmost  possible  extent.  The  "  world,"  the  ha- 
bitable or  civilized  world,  that  world,  or  society,  which  has  been 
expanded  and  improved  out  of  the  "world"  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  is  now,  though  not  equally  so  in  all  parts,  nor  reduced 
under  one  rule,  yet  in  a  true  sense  commensurate  with  the 
accessible  surface  of  our  planet.  And  Christianity  having  had 
the  benefit  of  this  vast  expansion,  and  having  become  in  some 
sense  commensurate  with  the  new  and  modern  oixou/xe'vjj,  that  is, 
with  the  whole  surface  of  the  habitable  globe,  the  result  is  that 
the  distinctive  terms  of  "  Eastern  "  and  "  Western  "  as  applied 
to  any  particular  Churches  or  Communions  can  have  no  longer 
any  geographical  but  only  an  historical  propriety.  And  the 
relative  position  of  the  two  Churches  themselves  has  hereby 
undergone  a  most  material  change.  Instead  of  two  great 
compact  masses  of  Christians  lying  the  one  over  against  the 
other,  their  duality  of  language,  I'ite,  races,  and  geographical 
position  corresponding  with  the  two  halves  of  what  was  prac- 
tically considered  as  the  world,  nearly  equal  in  the  number  of 
their  Bishops  and  Christians,  balancing  one  another  in  vicissi- 
tudes of  fortunes,  in  their  gains  and  losses,  we  have  since  the 
sixteenth  century  one  Church  only  of  the  two  become  some- 
thing like  universal,  incapable  in  consequence  of  being  called  any 
longer  with  geographical  propriety  "  Western  "  by  its  rival,  and 
incapacitating  its  rival  from  being  any  longer  called  "  Eastern  " 
with  respect  to  it,  embracing,  surrounding,  interpenetrating, 
and  overwhelming  the  other  from  on  all  sides ;  while  that  which 
was  before  the  Eastern  remains  sullenly  on  the  defensive,  one 
compact  territorial  mass   as  before ;  an  enormous  mass   in   ex- 


or  THE  "orthodox      communion.  o 

tent,  no  doubt,  but  without  any  prospect  of  rivalling  the  quasi- 
universality  of  the  Roman  Communion. 

The  titles  of  "  Greek  "  and  "  Latin  "  too  have  lost  much  of 
their  distinctive  propriety  when  applied  to  the  two  rival  Com- 
munions. A  Communion  which  now  contains  within  its  pale 
millions  of  Christians  using  Liturgies  of  Oriental  origin  in  the 
Greek,  Syriac,  Armenian,  and  other  tongues,  cannot  be  called 
strictly  or  exclusively  Latin.  Nor  can  a  Communion  which 
embraces  several  other  nations  and  languages  besides  the  Greek, 
each  performing  Divine  worship  in  its  own  tongue,  and  in  which, 
out  of  seventy  millions  of  Christians,  perhaps  sixty-four  millions 
are  Slavonians,  and  pray  in  the  Slavonic  tongue,  be  properly 
called  Greek,  merely  because  its  ritual  is  derived  in  great  mea- 
sure (by  no  means  exclusively,)  from  Greek  sources,  and  be- 
cause it  was  once  (and  that  not  within  its  present  limits,)  closely 
united  with  the  Grseco- Roman  Empire. 

At  the  present  day  the  only  distinctive  epithets  in  use  which 
are  not  manifestly  inapplicable  or  defective  are  those  of  "  Ro- 
man," "  Roman-Catholic,''  or  "  Catholic"  on  the  one  side,  and 
those  oS  '' Orthodox-Catholic,"  or  ''Orthodox"  on  the  other. 
The  titles  of  "  Catholic  "  and  "  Orthodox  "  are  indeed  claimed 
and  used  by  both  Communions;  but  practically  the  one  side 
insists  on  the  title  and  idea  of  Catholicism,  the  other  on  the 
title  and  idea  of  Orthodoxy.  And  it  is  this  latter  word,  and 
the  idea  which  it  represents,  which  must  sooner  or  later  come 
into  final  conflict  with  the  word  and  idea  of  Catholicism,  as 
evolving  itself  from  the  Roman  Supremacy. 

And  thus  much  of  distinctive  titles.  We  may  now  offer  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  present  state  and  probable  future  prospects 
of  the  so-called  "Orthodox^'  Communion. 

This  Communion  in  respect  of  population  has  now  about 
seventy  million  souls,  under  rather  less  than  three  hundred 
Bishops.  It  has  five  Patriarchates;  of  which  one,  that  of 
Alexandria,  the  first  anciently  in  dignity  after  old  Rome,  has 
now  only  five  thousand  souls,  and  one  suff'ragan  Bishop,  while 
the  most  recent,  that  of  Russia,  has  perhaps  fifty  million  souls; 
that  of  Constantinople  having  eleven  million,  that  of  Antioch 
(ifty  thousand,  and  that  of  Jerusalem  twenty-five  thousand. 
There   are    also    several    lesser    independent   or    autocephdious 


6  OF    THE    PRESENT    STATE 

Churches,  as  those  of  Cyprus,  of  Austrian   Scrvia,  of  Monte- 
negro, and  of  the  kingdom  of  Greece,  and  the  Lavra  of  Mount 
Sinai.    Six  languages  are  used  in  this  Communion  in  the  Services 
of  the  Church  on  a  large  scale,  namely,  the  Hellenic,  Georgian, 
Slavonic,  Arabic,  Wallachian,  and  Turkish ;  and  three  or  four 
more  may  be  used  in  particular  localities,  namely,  the  Lettish, 
Esthonian,  German,  and  Chaldean  or  Syriac.     In  the   Turkish 
Empire  the   hierarchy   are  jealously   controlled   by  an    infidel 
power,  and  cannot  proselytize,  nor  even  educate  freely  their  owu 
people.     They  cannot  hold  synods.     Yet  they  exercise  by  con- 
cession from  the  infidel  government  a  certain  jurisdiction  over 
their  people,  from  whom  they  are  required  as  tax  gatherers  to 
collect  certain    dues  which  were  formerly  payable   under   the 
Greek  Emperors  for  their  own  support.     In  Austria  the  "Or- 
thodox''  are  under  a   Roman-Catholic  Christian   government, 
which  without  any  very  outrageous  violence  has  found  means  to 
unite  more  than  three  millions  of  Christians  originally  "  Or- 
thodox" to  the  Roman  Church.     A  like  success  had  attended 
in  former  times  the  efforts  of   the  Sovereigns  of   Poland  and 
Lithuania ;  and  still  attends,  on  a  smaller  scale,  those  of  the 
French  Consuls  in  Syria  and  other  parts  of  the  Levant.     In 
the  Russian  Empire  the  "  Orthodox  "  Church  is  governed  by  a 
standing  spiritual  Synod,  the  members  of  which,  seven  or  eight 
in  number,  are  nominated  and  removed  by  the  Crown  :  nor  are 
any  other  synods  of  the  Clergy  permitted  to  meet  for  delibera- 
tion, or  to  make  canons.     All  the  oflficers   or   servants  of  the 
Synod,  and  those  of  the  Diocesan  Bishops,  are  nominated,  paid, 
and  removed  by  the  civil  government,  and  are  under  its  imme- 
diate orders  :  and  all  the  real  and  funded  property  belonging  to 
the  Church,  as  well  as  all  Educational  funds  and  establishments, 
spiritual  as  well  as  secular,  are  under  the  control  of  the   same. 
The  population  of  that  territorial  area  which   is  occupied  by 
the  "  Orthodox"  Church  is  "  Orthodox  "  in  very  different  pro- 
portions.    In  Great  Russia  it  may  be  regarded  as  almost  one 
homogeneous  mass.    In  the  Danubian  provinces  also,  and  in  the 
kingdom  of  Greece,  the  ''  Orthodox  "  form  the  great  bulk  of 
the    population.      In  Georgia,  and    in    European  Turkey,  the 
"Orthodox"    Christians   arc   as  two-thirds  of  the  whole,  the 
remaining  third  being  Mahometan.     In  Austrian   Servia  they 


OV    THE    "ORTHODOX        COMMUNION.  7 

are  mixed  with  Uniats  and  other  Roman -Catholics.  In  Asiatic 
Turkey  they  are  a  small  minority :  while  in  Egypt  and  Syria 
they  hardly  exist  as  a  native  population,  being  outnumbered  not 
only  by  the  Monophysites,  but  also  in  many  places  even  by  the 
Uniats  or  others  of  the  Roman-Catholic  Communion. 

Such  being  the  present  state  of  the  "  Orthodox  "  Commu- 
nion, its  destinies  may  be  said  to  be  practically  wrapped  up  with 
those  of  the  Slavonic  race,  and  so  again  with  those  of  the 
Russian  Empire.  And  we  may  affirm  it  to  be  probable  that 
in  the  course  of  time  it  will,  through  the  Russian  power,  regain 
the  whole  of  those  countries  which  formerly  constituted  the 
Grseco-Eastern  Empire ;  and  not  only  so,  but  that  it  will  cover 
the  whole  of  Asia  to  the  uttermost  shores  of  the  Eastern  and 
Southern  Ocean ;  while  North  America,  Australia,  and  the  vast 
and  numerous  islands  scattered  between  New  Holland  and 
China,  will  be  filled  by  a  people  or  race  partly  Protestant  or 
infidel,  and  partly  Roman-Catholic,  of  Anglo-British  origin. 

It  is  also  highly  probable  that  the  ignorance  and  want  of 
education  and  learning  now  complained  of  among  the  "  Or- 
thodox "  Clergy  of  the  Levant  will  gradually  disappear  under 
more  favourable  circumstances,  and  that  they,  no  less  than 
their  brethren  the  Russian  Clergy,  will  become  worthy  of  being 
compared  with  the  most  enlightened  Clergy  of  the  West. 

Looking  forward  to  such  a  development  of  the  "  Orthodox  " 
Church,  there  will  still  remain  to  be  considered  the  following 
questions  : 

After  all,  will  not  the  "  Orthodox  "  Communion,  when  it 
shall  have  spread  over  the  whole  of  Asia,  be  as  far  as  ever  from 
being  visibly  universal  or  Catholic  in  that  sense  in  which  the 
Roman-Catholic  Communion  is  universal  even  now  ? 

Will  it  even  then  send  out  missionaries,  or  will  its  mission- 
aries have  any  success,  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Russian  or  other 
"  Orthodox"  empires  or  states  ? 

Will  it  be  more  able  than  it  has  been  hitherto  to  preserve  any 
part  of  its  population  which  may  pass  under  a  Roman-Catholic 
ruler  from  being  persuaded  or  forced  to  submit  to  Rome  ? 

Will  it  evolve  from  among  its  clergy  any  enlightened  and 
zealous  reaction  against  the  spread  of  that  immorality  and  infi- 
delity which  accompanies  civilization,  such  as  we  have  seen  in 


8     or  Tiii;  riiosi'ECTs  of  tiii:  "orthodox"  communion. 

the  Western  Church,  and  especially  in  the  Galilean,  which  at 
the  very  time  that  France,  as  a  nation,  was  apostatizing  from 
Christianity,  could  send  out  missionaries  to  preach  the  Gospel  in 
China  ? 

Will  its  relations  to  the  civil  power  \n  the  immense  Slavonic 
Empire,  or  in  the  states  into  which  after  centuries  that  Empire 
may  be  divided,  be  such  as  arc  compatible  with  the  true  mission 
and  spiritual  efficiency  of  an  Apostolic  Hierarchy  ?  Or,  will  it  be 
upon  the  whole  the  political  instrument  of  a  worldly  or  infidel 
state-supremacy,  which  will  find  its  only  antagonist  in  the 
Roman  Pontiff,  and  which,  being  raised  to  such  an  unparalleled 
height  of  worldly  greatness,  will  attempt  to  put  down  by  force 
Roman-Catholic  Christianity,  and  so,  perhaps,  set  a  crowning 
seal  to  its  truth  ? 

These  are  the  questions  which  will  suggest  themselves  to  the 
mind  of  any  Latin  who  feels  his  own  strength  in  the  word  and 
idea  and  consciousness  of  "  Catholicism,"  and  who  cannot  con- 
template any  other  alternative  ;  such  as  that  of  Russian  Emperors 
and  Bishops  returning  from  the  spirit  and  examples  of  the 
Peters,  Catherines,  Procopovichcs,  and  Leforts,  to  the  spirit  and 
principles  of  such  sovereigns  as  St.  Vladimir,  and  Vladimir 
Monomachus,  Alexander  Nefsky,  Demetrius  Donskoy,  and 
Michael  Theodorovich,  of  such  counsellors  as  the  priest  Silvester 
and  Alexis  Adashefl",  and  of  such  hierarchs  as  the  Patriarch 
Nicon. 


DISSERTATION   II. 

ON     THE     PllKSKNT     APPARENT     CONFLICT     BETWEEN     "ORTHO- 
DOXY"   AND    "CATHOLICISM." 

As  there  is  cue  God  and  Father,  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  one 
Holy  Ghost,  and  one  Baptism,  so  also  there  is  One  Body  of 
the  Church,  the  essential  attributes  of  which  are  all  inseparably 
united  together.  The  Church  is  Hohj :  the  same  Church  is 
Catholic,  or  Universal:  the  same  is  Apostolic:  the  same  is 
Orthodox,  or  rightly -believing :  the  same  is  One.  If  there  can 
be  two  Gods,  one  Almighty  and  the  other  all-merciful,  then  there 
may  be  two  Churches,  one  Catholic  or  Universal,  and  the  other 
Orthodox. 

Yet  at  a  certain  point  of  time,  or  between  two  certain  points 
of  time,  we  see  that  great  body  of  the  visible  Catholic  or 
Oecumenical  Church,  which  from  the  division  of  the  (Ecumenical 
Roman  Empire  (Trjj  oUou|U,lvr)c,)  was  distinguished  superficially 
into  two  branches,  Eastern  and  Western,  Greek  and  Latin, 
without  detriment  to  its  essential  unity,  splitting  into  two  sepa- 
rate and  hostile  communities,  one  of  which  insisting  upon 
"  Orthodoxy''  was  nevertheless  unable  to  enforce  that  Orthodoxy 
upon  the  consciences  of  men  by  the  weight  of  manifest  Catholi- 
cism, the  other  insisting  at  the  time  on  the  Roman  pre-eminence 
and  the  indivisible  unity  of  the  Church  (and  now  also  upon  the 
note  of  a  greater  appearance  of  Catholicism,)  was  little  careful  or 
able  to  meet  the  charge  brought  against  it  with  regard  to 
Orthodoxy. 

The  Eastern  section  of  Christendom  in  condemning  the  Latins 
urged  openly  that  they  had  become  heterodox,  and  assumed  or 
unplicd  tacitly  thai  therefore  they  could  not  be  Catholic,  while 
their  own  Eastcin  Church,   in   spite  of  any  appearances  to  her 


10  ON    TUE    PUESENT    APPARENT    CONFLICT    BETWEEN 

disadvantage,  must  be  also  Catholic,  because  she  was  unquestion- 
ably Orthodox.  The  Latins  retorted  that  having  on  their  side 
the  See  of  Peter  (to  which  was  attached  the  unity  and  Catho- 
licity of  the  Church),  they  must  therefore,  in  spite  of  any 
appearances  to  their  disadvantage,  be  also  Orthodox,  while  the 
Easterns  refusing  to  follow  them,  and  so  breaking  off  from 
unity,  could  not  really  have  any  advantage  in  respect  of  Ortho- 
doxy, whatever  appearances  they  might  think  they  had  in  their 
favour. 

Each  side  had  its  own  strong  point,  on  which  it  insisted : 
neither  side  answered  fairly  or  adequately  to  the  objection  of  the 
other.  Each  alike  dissembled  the  point  of  its  own  apparent  dis- 
advantage, and  trusted  to  that  point  on  which  it  felt  itself  strong 
to  overbalance  and  hide  its  weakness. 

Under  such  circumstances  if  the  two  contending  bodies  had 
been  at  the  first  equal  in  strength  the  one  to  the  other,  and  had 
remained  so  since,  the  two  forces  would  have  absolutely  neu- 
tralized one  another,  and  it  would  have  seemed  to  us  now  that 
either  there  is  no  such  thing  in  existence  as  the  Church  of  the 
Creed,  at  once  Orthodox  and  universal,  (the  two  destroying  one 
another,)  or  else  that  the  two  conflicting  bodies  are  both  equally 
the  Church,  that  is  parts  of  the  Church,  their  conflict  and  ex- 
ternal separation  being  only  a  superficial  accident  and  disease, 
and  not  reaching  to  the  essential  orthodoxy  and  Catholicity 
inherent  in  them  both. 

But  whatever  may  have  seemed  to  be  the  case  at  the  first 
separation,  when  the  two  sides  were  in  point  of  extent  and  in  the 
number  of  their  Bishops  nearly  equal,  (though  even  then  the 
dignity  of  the  elder  Rome  and  the  pre-eminence  of  the  See  and 
Martyrion  of  Peter  turned  the  balance  of  mere  authority  much 
in  favour  of  the  West,)  there  is  certainly  no  such  equality  exist- 
ing now.  As  time  has  gone  on  the  evidences  of  Eastern  supe- 
riority in  respect  of  Orthodoxy  have  remained  much  what  they 
were,  while  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  world  and  in  Chris- 
tendom which  have  greatly  increased  the  advantages  of  the 
Westerns  in  respect  of  Catholicism. 

The  so-called  "  Catholic"  or  '' Roman- Catholic"  Church  appears 
now  plainly  to  all  men  to  be  really  Catholic  or  universally  diffused 
(and  this  is  one  part  nt   least  of  the  idea  of  Catholicism,)  in  a 


"orthodoxy"    and    "CATHOLICISM."  11 

degree  in  which  the  so-called  "  Orthodox'^  Church  does  not 
appear  to  be  so.  This  is  a  fact,  about  which  there  can  be  no 
doubt,  and  no  mistake.  But  on  the  other  side  it  is  onhj  to  those 
who  think  so  that  the  so-called  "  Orthodox'^  Church  appears  to 
be  really  orthodox  in  a  degree  in  which  the  so-called  "  Catholic" 
Church  does  not  appear  to  be  so ;  or  that  the  apparent  identity 
of  the  spirit  of  domination  in  Christian  Rome  with  that  of  Pagan 
Rome,  and  the  perpetual  self-preaching  of  the  Roman  See  seem 
to  be  strong  arguments  against  the  Roman  side. 

If  one  is  forced  to  choose  upon  such  data  alone,  it  is  clear 
that  we  may  more  easily  and  more  properly  suspect  of  error 
even  the  strongest  convictions  of  individuals  or  minorities  as  to 
a  deep  question  of  orthodoxy  or  heterodoxy,  than  doubt  the 
common  sense  and  sight  of  all  men  as  to  the  advantage  of 
superior  visible  Catholicity,  which  is  a  plain  matter  of  fact. 

Either  then  our  personal  or  inherited  opinion  that  the  self- 
called  "  Orthodox  "  Church  is  really  orthodox,  and  the  self-called 
"  Catholic  "  Church  heterodox,  umst  be  sacrificed  and  reversed, 
so  as  to  make  a  superior  Orthodoxy  about  which  we  can  doubt 
submit  to  a  superior  Catholicism  about  which  we  cannot  doubt ; 
or  else,  if  we  cannot  rid  ourselves  of  our  convictions,  and  yet  see 
the  absurdity  of  supposing  a  greater  apparent  Catholicism  to  be 
for  centuries  opposed  to  true  Catholicism  and  to  Orthodoxy,  we 
must  infer  that  the  opinion  and  assumption  of  there  being  an 
essential  difference  between  the  two  sides  (seeing  that  it  leads  to 
such  difficulties  and  absurdities,)  is  itself  false  :  and  we  must  re- 
concile the  conflicting  phsenomena  of  superior  Orthodoxy  on  the 
one  side  and  superior  Catholicism  on  the  other  by  supposing 
that  the  quarrel  and  schism  of  the  East  and  West,  of  the  Greeks 
and  Latins,  is  superficial  only,  and  not  essential ;  and  that  in 
some  way  or  other  both  parts  together  have  continued  since  their 
quarrel  to  constitute  the  Universal  Church,  just  as  they  did  be- 
fore the  quarrel ;  and  that  their  true  inward  unity  has  no  moi-e 
been  broken  by  their  long-standing  outward  schism,  than  the 
true  inward  unity  of  the  Latin  Church  was  suspended  or  broken 
by  its  disruption  into  two  or  even  three  outward  Obediences 
during  seventy  years,  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 

Against  such  an  hypothesis  as  this  there  are,  no  doubt,  for- 
midable objections  : 


12  ON    THE     rilKSENT    Arr.VRENT    CONFLICT    15ETWEEN 

In  the  first  place  tlie  Latins,  fully  conscious  of  their  own  ad- 
vantage in  the  present  position  of  the  controversy,  will  be  for- 
ward to  argue  that  the  outward  as  well  as  inward  unity  of  the 
Church  is  necessarily  always  visible  and  perfect,  or,  at  the  least, 
not  liable  to  such  obscuration  and  interruption  as  this  theory 
supposes,  nor  for  so  long  a  time  :  that  the  theory  in  question  is 
clearly  and  peremptorily  rejected  by  both  parties ;  so  that  any 
one  maintaining  it  rests  upon  the  merest  private  judgment 
against  all  that  either  is  or  pi'etends  to  be  authority  :  in  fine, 
that  one  must  choose  simply  between  the  two.  If  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  embrace  as  oecumenical  an  "  Orthodoxy  "  which  plainly  is 
not  oecumenical,  you  must  be  content  to  stifle  all  misgivings  and 
receive  as  orthodox  a  "Catholicism"  which  may  possibly  be  or- 
thodox, even  though  it  has  strong  appearances,  and  the  voice  of 
a  large  minority,  and  private  judgment  against  it. 

The  Easterns,  on  the  other  hand,  little  used  to  abstract  con- 
troversy, are  either  insensible  to  the  disadvantages  of  their  the- 
ological position,  and  careless  to  improve  it ;  or,  if  they  ever  feel 
that  Rome  has  some  advantage,  this  excites  only  a  perplexity 
and  indignation  like  what  they  may  feel  at  the  temporary  exal- 
tation and  tyranny  of  infidel  Empires.  Truth,  they  say,  is  not 
at  any  moment,  nor  even  during  any  given  course  of  centuries, 
to  be  measured  by  mere  geographical  extent,  or  by  numbers  : 
nor,  so  long  as  God^s  promises  given  to  the  true  Church  are  ge- 
nerally and  sufficiently  accomplished  to  Orthodoxy,  is  another 
community,  which  plainly  rebels  against  the  oecumenical  law,  to 
be  preferred  merely  because  it  is  larger,  even  though  it  may  con- 
tinue to  be  larger  for  centuries.  Rather,  on  the  contrary,  the 
very  zeal  of  those  who  are  perpetually  crying,  "  The  Temple  of 
the  Lord,  the  Temple  of  the  Lord,  the  Temple  of  the  Lord 
are  we,"  and  who  in  this  zeal  are  ever  compassing  sea  and  land 
to  make  one  proselyte,  is  a  great  sign  that  they  are  far  from  the 
true  Temple  of  the  Lord,  and  rather  like  to  the  Jews  of  old, 
who  boasting  of  the  Temple,  and  confidently  identifying  it  with 
themselves  as  children  of  Abraham,  but  making  it  subservient 
to  their  own  wills,  destroyed  the  true  Temple,  and  crucified  as  a 
bla5>i)hemer  against  the  Temple  the  Lord  of  the  Temple  Him- 
self. While,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Orthodox,  though  failing 
greatly,  no  doubt,  in  respect  of  that  zeal  and  charity  which  they 


"orthodoxy"  and  "  catiioltcism/'  13 

ought  to  show  for  the  conversion  of  the  worhl,  and  for  the  re- 
union in  one  of  all  Christians,  yet  in  this  are  faulty  only  as 
almost  all  men  in  this  evil  age  (and  the  Latins  equally  with 
others,)  are  faulty  with  respect  to  all  virtues  and  duties  which 
are  simply  debts  to  God  and  man,  and  which  find  no  adventi- 
tious incitements  from  interest,  ambition,  or  rivalry,  within  our- 
selves. 

This  is  what  is  said  on  both  sides :  and  once  more  we  must 
allow  that  the  Latin  arguments  are  the  stronger.     For,  in  spite 
of  all  that  can  be  said,  if  the  true  Church  is   "  u  city  set  on  a 
hill,  which  cannot  he  hid,''  it  must  be  perplexing  to  the  eyes  of  a 
man   seeking  the  true  Church  to  see  at  once  two  hills  and  two 
cities  more  or  less  answering  in  appearance  to  what  he  seeks : 
and  it  must  sound  paradoxical  to  such  an  one  to  hear  himself  in- 
vited to  the  smaller  city  and  to  the  lesser  hill,  rather  than  to  the 
greater.    Even  a  Greek  Christian  must  feel  this,  if  he  chances  to 
hear  a  member  of  t\c  Nestorian  Church,  now  reduced  to  sixty 
thousand  souls  in  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan,  use  his  own  ar- 
gument that  the  true  Church  is  not  to  be  discerned  by  mere 
extent  or  numbers.     And  though  there  is,  doubtless,  a  vast  dif- 
ference between  the  self  called  "Orthodox"  Church   and  the 
Nestorian,  yet,  so  far  as  this  argument  goes,  the  difference  is 
not  in  kind  but  only  in  degree.     They  are  both  minorities;  the 
one  a  very  small,   the  other   a   very  large  minority  ;  the  one 
making  a  preposterous  demand,  the  other  a  less  exorbitant  de- 
mand on   private  judgment  to  unite  with  it  against  a  greater 
apparent  authority.    But  if  a  certain  degree  of  inferiority  in  num- 
bers and  extent  reduces  the  claim  of  the  Nestorian  Church  to  an 
absurdity,  then  it  is  clear  that  any  degree  of  such  inferiority  must 
involve  some  disadvantage  to  that  Church  or  side  to  which  it  at- 
taches.   And  that  this  is  so  is  further  shown  by  the  fact  that  men 
of  virtue  and  piety  are  often  found  to  pass  from  the  Eastern  to 
the  Roman-Catholic  Communion  :  and  such  men  almost  always 
give  this  as  their  chief  reason,  that  the  apparent  authority  and 
universality  of  the  Roman-Catholic  Church  outweighs  the  self- 
asserted  Orthodoxy  of  the  Easterns  who  are  only  a  minority  : 
while  no  instance,   perhaps,  or   scarcely  any  instance,  can  be 
adduced  even  of  an  individual  Latin  Bishop,  Priest,  or  layman 
of  acknoivledged  piety  and  learning  passing  over  to  the  Eastern 


14  ON    THE    PRESENT    APPARENT    CONFLICT    BETWEEN 

Church  from  a  conviction  that  it  alone  is  Orthodox,  and  there- 
fore, in  spite  of  all  appearances,  also  Catholic. 

Notwithstanding,  however,  the  above  objections  from  the  two 
sides,  and  the  confessed  advantage  of  the  Latins  if  one  is  forced 
to  a  choice,  the  theory  that  the  two  bodies  together  constitute 
the  Catholic  Church  may  still  be  true,  and  to  be  accepted. 
The  existence  of  great  difficulties  and  objections  against  it  is 
no  reason  for  rejecting  it,  unless  we  arc  also  convinced  that 
those  difficulties  and  objections  are  greater  than  those  which 
make  against  either  the  exclusive  Greek  or  the  exclusive  Latin 
theory. 

For,  without  describing  them  at  length,  it  is  plain  that  the 
phsenomena  of  the  Eastern  Church  (to  say  nothing  of  internal 
phsenomena  within  the  Latin  Church  herself,  or  of  the  view  any 
man  may  take  of  particular  controversies,)  do  oppose  consider- 
able difficulties  to  the  exclusive  Latin  theory,  difficulties  not  to 
be  summarily  dismissed  in  a  couple  of  lines.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  also  plain  that  the  phseuomeua  of  the  Latin  or 
Roman-Catholic  Church  oppose  still  greater  difficulties  to  the 
exclusive  Eastern  theory.  The  question  then  is  not  whether 
the  difficulties  and  objections  making  against  the  third  theory 
(that  the  two  Churches  are  after  all  intrinsically  one,  and  their 
estrangement  only  superficial,)  are  great,  but  whether  they  are 
greater  than  those  which  lie  against  either  the  exclusive  Greek 
or  the  exclusive  Latin  theory,  and  especially  against  the  latter 
which  is  confessed  to  be  the  stronger  of  the  two. 

If  any  one  agrees  with  the  writer  that,  upon  the  whole,  the 
difficulty  of  supposing  that  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches 
together  still  continue  to  constitute  now  after  their  quarrel,  as 
before,  the  universal  Church,  is  less  than  the  difficulty  of  sup- 
posing that  either  the  Greeks  or  the  Latins  are  simply  and 
absolutely  cut  ofi"  (as  the  Arians,  Nestoriaus,  and  Monophysites 
have  been  cut  off,)  from  Orthodoxy  and  Catholicism,  to  such  a 
one  it  will  be  natural  to  inquire  what  signs  there  may  be  in 
ecclesiastical  history,  or  in  the  present  language  and  feelings  of 
Greeks  and  Latins  respectivelj^,  to  corroborate  that  theory  which 
he  is  inclined  for  its  own  sake  to  accept. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  it  must  strike  every  one  as  extraordinary, 
and  contrary  to  all  experience  of  ecclesiastical  history,  if  cither 


"orthodoxy"    and    "CATHOLICISM."  15 

the  Greek  or  the  Latin  Church  had  really  fallen  into  heresy, 
that  the  process  of  their  outward  alienation  and  separation  should 
have  been  so  gradual  and  indistinct,  extending  from  Photius  to 
Cerularius,  and  even  beyond,  over  a  space  of  more  than  two 
hundred  years :  whereas  in  the  case  of  all  other  heresies  there 
have  always  been  holy  and  learned  Bishops  and  Doctors  who 
denounced  them  as  such  from  the  very  time  of  their  first  ap- 
pearance, and  who  from  first  to  last  constantly  refused  to  com- 
municate either  with  the  hei'etics  themselves,  or  with  such  as 
from  weakness  communicated  with  them,  till  they  procured  the 
complete  and  final  condemnation  of  the  heresy  by  the  Church  at 
large.  But  in  this  case  Photius  himself,  who  so  publicly  and 
with  such  effect  anathematized  the  maintainers  of  the  Filioque 
when  he  had  reasons  for  attacking  Rome,  had  only  a  little  be- 
fore, when  it  suited  him  to  be  at  peace,  thought  himself  justified 
in  writing  that  the  Greeks  and  Latins  diff'ered  only  "  Trsp] 
ju-jxpw!/  Tivoov,"  alluding  then  unquestionably  to  this  same  difi"er- 
ence  of  the  Filioque  as  much  as,  or  more  than,  to  any  other.  And 
on  the  other  hand,  if  the  denial  of  the  Filioque  by  the  Greeks 
was  a  heresy,  (as  was  maintained  afterwards  by  the  Papal 
Legate  Cardinal  Humbert,  who  absurdly  charged  them  with 
having  expunged  it  from  the  Creed,)  then  how  could  the  Popes 
of  Rome  come,  as  they  did  by  their  Legates,  into  the  East  after 
Photius  and  the  Easterns  had  so  publicly  condemned  the 
Filioque  as  an  error  and  even  as  heresy,  and  take  part  in  and 
preside  in  Eastern  Councils  without  saying  a  word  in  defence  of 
the  truth  or  for  the  condemnation  of  error  on  this  point  ?  dis- 
sembling upon  it  altogether,  deposing  Photius  only  on  grounds 
of  irregularity,  without  hinting  any  suspicion  of  his  orthodoxy, 
reciting  the  Creed  in  the  form  defended  by  his  Anathemas,  and 
even,  as  it  seems,  silently  assenting  to  the  repetition  of  the 
same  Anathemas  against  the  insertion  of  the  addition  ? 

Again,  if  the  Latins  were  heretics,  how  could  the  Greeks  so 
publicly  and  so  repeatedly,  from  the  time  of  Photius  to  the  pre- 
sent day,  offer  to  make  union  with  them  if  only  the  interpola- 
tion were  omitted  from  the  Creed,  without  insisting  on  any 
condemnation  or  retractation  of  the  doctrine  itself  as  heresy  ? 
And  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  Greek  denial  of  the  Filioque  was 
heresy  or  heterodoxy,  how  could  Pope  Leo  IIL  by  setting  up  in 


16      ON     THE    PRESENT    APPAKENT    CONFLICT     BETWEEN 

his  two  silver  shields  or  tables  a  public  protest  against  that  ad- 
dition to  the  Creed  which  was  pressed  for  by  the  envoys  of 
Charlemagne,  have  been  showing  his  love  for  orthodoxy,  and  his 
care  lest  it  should  be  tampered  with  ?  "  Hjec  Leo  posui  amore.  et 
cauteld  orthoduxce  Fidei."  Or  if  it  were  schism  and  apostacy 
from  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church  for  the  Easterns  to  resist 
the  See  of  Peter  when  afterwards  it  countenanced  and  adopted 
and  even  enjoined  that  novelty,  how  could  the  same  Pope 
Leo  IIL  who  has  just  been  mentioned  insist  that  both  he,  the 
Pope  himself,  and  all  other  Catholic  Christians  were  so  subject 
to  the  decrees  of  the  CEcumenical  Councils  forbidding  all  altera- 
tion of  the  Creed,  that  if  they  inserted  the  clause  m  question, 
however  orthodox  they  might  think  it,  they  would  make  it  im- 
possible for  any  man  afterwards  either  to  teach,  or  sing,  or  say 
the  Creed  without  blame  ?  Or  how  could  another  Pope,  John 
VIIL,  half  a  century  later,  write  to  Photius,  as  he  did,  agreeing 
with  him  on  this  point,  condemning  strongly  the  authors  of  the 
innovation,  and  only  demanding  time  and  patience  on  the  part 
of  the  Easterns,  till  they  should  be  able  to  correct  in  the  West 
so  great  a  prevarication  ?  Or,  how  could  the  same  Pope,  after 
having  summoned  to  Rome  the  Apostles  of  the  Slavonians, 
St.  Cyril  and  St.  Methodius,  accused  as  heretics  by  German 
Bishops  for  refusing  the  interpolation  and  condemning  the  doc- 
trine it  embodied,  how,  I  say,  could  the  same  Pope,  John  the 
Eighth,  have  justified  those  holy  men  merely  because  Rome  had 
not  yet  herself  adopted,  though  she  tolerated  in  others,  the  in- 
terpolation ? 

IL  Assuming  it  to  be  true  (what  it  would  need  a  separate 
dissertation  to  prove  at  length,)  that  the  alienation  of  the  two 
Churches  was  owing  in  great  measure  to  a  spirit  which  grew  up 
gradually  within  each  of  them  from  below,  and  that,  important 
as  were  the  acts  and  motives  and  pretexts  of  Photius  and  Ceru- 
larius  and  the  Byzantine  Court  (and  especially  the  matter  of 
the  Filioque,)  on  the  one  side,  and  the  swellings  of  Papal  Supre- 
macy on  the  other,  still  the  main  forces  causing  the  ultimate 
separation  were  rather  of  a  popular  kind,  consisting  in  national 
antipathies  between  the  German-Latins,  and  the  Greeks  and 
Slavonians,  and  mixed  with  these  ritual  prejudices  and  anti- 
pathies, then,  in  whatever  degree  any  man  comes   to   see  and 


"orthodoxy"    and    "CATHOLICISM."  17 

understand  this,  he  will  he  the  more  strengthened  in  the  opinion 
that  there  is  not,  prohahly,  besides  at  the  root  of  this  vast  and 
unhappy  and  long-standing  schism  any  essential  theological 
error  either  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  but  rather  moral  and 
spiritual  degeneracy  on  both  sides,  which  has  been  permitted  to 
work  out  its  own  punishment.  Because  iniquity  abounded 
therefore  the  love  of  the  brethren  waxed  cold  :  and  those  power- 
ful natural  principles  of  alienation  and  divergence  which  though 
they  had  early  apj)eared  in  the  Church,  and  had  been  on  the 
increase,  had  yet  for  centuries  been  overcome  and  held  to- 
gether into  unity  by  grace,  have  rent  the  visible  Church, 
like  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel  of  old,  into  two  great  separate 
branches. 

III.  But  to  leave  these  general  considerations,  and  to  come  to 
matters  of  fact  and  history :  we  find  that  even  after  Cerularius, 
and  down  to  the  present  day,  both  the  Latins  and  the  Greeks 
have  shown  many  signs  of  a  deep  consciousness  that  their  rivals 
still  belong  to  the  Catholic  Church  in  a  sense  in  which  no  other 
heretics  or  schismatics  can  be  said  to  do  so. 

As  for  the  Latins,  we  see  this  truth  well  illustrated  by  the 
inconsistent  expressions  of  Pope  Gregory  VII.  and  Pope  Urban 
II.  in  proposing  and  preaching  the  first  Crusade.  As  it  were  in 
the  same  breath  Pope  Gregory  VII.  writes  that  a  main  object 
with  him  is  to  force  upon  the  Eastern  Church,  which  differs 
from  us  about  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  by  the  instigation  of  the 
devil  falls  away  from  the  Catholic  faith,  the  decision  of  the  faith 
of  Peter,  while  Pope  Urban  exhorts  all  the  West  to  dehver 
from  the  oppression  of  the  infidels  in  Palestine  our  dear  breth- 
ren, our  very  true  brethren,  and  co-heirs  of  the  heavenly  king- 
dom ;  to  save  the  Church  of  God  from  sufi'ering  loss  to  the 
faith ;  to  defend  the  Eastern  Church,  from  which  hath  flowed 
all  our  salvation,  which  suckled  us  with  the  divine  milk,  and 
first  delivered  to  us  the  sacred  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  And 
again  :  their  object  is  at  once  to  promote  the  general  interest  of 
Christianity,  and  the  most  desirable  exaltation  of  our  Latin 
Church  in  particular.  With  the  like  inconsistency,  the  Crusa- 
ders, when  they  first  took  the  city  of  Autioch,  restored  with 
much  honour  the  Greek  Patriarch  to  his  chair,  thinking  this, 
as  William  of  Tyre  writes,  more  agreeable  to  the  Canons  and  to 

c 


18  ON    THE    PRESENT    APPARENT    CONFLICT    15ETWEEN 

the  constitutioas  of  the  holy  Fathers,  than  to  elect  and  conse- 
crate a  Patriarch  of  our  own  Latinity :  though  scarce  two 
years  after,  changing  their  minds,  they  obliged  him  to  retire  to 
Constantinople,  and  set  up  a  Latin  Patriarch.  And  when  they 
took  Jerusalem  and  Palestine  they  made  a  Latin  Patriarch  there 
and  a  Latin  Hierarchy  at  once,  expelling  the  Greek :  and  at 
Constantinople,  and  throughout  a  great  part  of  the  Levant, 
how  they  treated  their  ''  dear  brethren,'^  their  "  very  true 
brethren,"  and  "  co-heirs  of  the  heavenly  kingdom,"  how  they 
did  to  their  Churches  exactly  what  the  Turks  had  done  to  them 
in  Palestine,  and  created  everywhere  a  Latin  hierarchy,  needs 
not  here  to  be  described. 

But  in  the  way  of  Latin  admissions  in  favour  of  the  Eastern 
Church,  no  stronger  testimony  can  be  conceived  than  that 
afforded  by  the  Council  of  Florence  itself,  at  which,  though  for 
the  future  the  Greeks  were  to  submit  absolutely  to  Rome,  yet  for 
the  past  the  existence  of  their  Church,  of  the  Greek  or  Eastern 
Church  as  distinguished  from  the  Latin,  with  all  her  Saints, 
was  retrospectively  recognized.  The  Pope  had  recognized  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople  as  a  brother  before  the  opening  of 
the  Council,  and  the  other  Patriarchs  as  the  legitimate  posses- 
sors of  their  Sees ;  and  "  a  holy  union  of  the  two  Churches " 
was  thought  afterwards  to  have  been  concluded  without  either 
of  them  retracting  or  yielding  to  the  other,  both  appearing,  on 
explanation,  to  have  all  along  virtually  meant  the  same  thing. 
Such  was  the  account  given  by  Latin  Bishops  returning  from 
the  Council ;  and  such  is  the  footing  on  which  those  Uniats 
who  have  accepted  the  terms  of  the  Council  of  Florence  stand 
even  at  the  present  day  with  regard  to  the  non-united  Church 
of  their  ancestors  from  the  time  of  Cerularius  to  the  formation 
of  the  Unia.  And  some  Latin  writers  connected  with  the 
Uniats,  seeing  the  retrospective  latitude  of  the  terms  accorded 
to  them,  and  desiring  at  once  to  veil  the  theological  consequences 
of  such  latitude,  and  to  make  the  bridge  between  the  two  Com- 
munions as  serviceable  for  the  future  as  possible,  have  been 
emboldened  to  attempt  the  most  curious  and  extensive  falsifica- 
tions of  history,  writing  down  the  whole  Eastern  Church,  in 
spite  of  the  bitter  animosity  of  so  many  centuries,  as  having 
been  all  along  devoted  to   the   Pope   and  to  "  Catholicism,"  in 


"orthodoxy'^  and  "catholicis:m."  19 

their  sense  of  the  word,  down  to  the  very  formation  of  their 
Uniat  congregations ;  and  the  Russian  Church,  more  especially, 
as  having  been  perfectly  "  Catholic  "  down  to  the  time  of  the 
Metropolitan  of  Moscow  Photius.  Some  authors  prolong  its 
orthodoxy  even  to  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great ! 

Lastly,  not  the  weakest  testimony  is  the  continued  use 
of  the  expressions  "  Greek  Church,"  and  "  Eastern  Church,'^ 
as  distinguished  from  "  Latin  Church,''  and  "Western  Church," 
and  of  "  the  Greeks,"  or  "  the  Easterns,"  as  distinguished  from 
"  the  Latins,"  or  "  Westerns."  The  force  of  this  language  was 
felt  and  pointed  out  by  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  modern 
Ultramontane  writers,  the  Count  Joseph  De  Maistre;  and  he 
suggested  as  a  remedy  for  its  evil  tendency  the  substitution  of 
the  epithet  "  Photienne."  After  the  publication  of  his  treatise 
the  Greek  or  Eastern  or  Orthodox  Churches  were  no  longer  to 
be  called  by  any  of  these  titles,  but  were  to  become  "  les  Eglises 
PhotienneSy"  and  therefore,  of  course,  manifest  nullities.  But 
it  is  more  reasonable,  perhaps,  to  think  that  the  theory  of  a 
talented  writer,  when  it  conflicts  with  language  rooted  in  con- 
tinuous history  and  in  the  popular  use  and  mind  and  conscience 
of  all  Christendom,  is  thereby  shown  to  be  false,  than  to  expect 
that  the  world  will  remodel  its  language  so  as  to  sustain  the 
theory  of  an  individual,  even  though  that  theory  should  be  em- 
braced by  the  whole  Roman -Catholic  or  Latin  Communion. 
An  Anglican  theory  may  require  that  the  Anglican  Church 
should,  within  her  own  dioceses  at  least,  be  orthodox  and 
Catholic,  and  an  individual  or  a  party  may  do  their  best  to  give 
her  such  titles ;  but  the  use  and  conscience  of  the  world  at 
large  will  continue  to  refuse  them.  A  Greek  theory  may  lead 
a  Greek  to  dissemble  the  strength  accruing  to  the  Latins  from 
their  greater  apparent  universality,  and  from  their  possession  of 
the  title  "  Catholic,"  and  of  the  idea  which  it  embodies ;  but 
this  advantage  will  not  therefore  cease  to  exist  and  to  be  felt, 
and  even  to  convert  occasionally  Greeks  and  Russians  to  the 
Roman  Communion,  so  long  as  the  two  Churches  remain  in 
their  present  respective  attitudes.  And  in  like  manner  the 
advantage,  such  as  it  is,  which  is  given  to  the  Easterns  by  the 
continuance  to  the  present  day  even  among  the  Latins  of  the 
popular  distinction  of  the  Latin  Church  from  the  Greek,  and  of 


20  ON    THE    PRESENT    APPARENT    CONFLICT    BETWEEN 

the  Western  from  the  Eastern,  is  one  of  which  it  is  beyond  the 
power  of  either  individuals  or  parties  to  deprive  them. 

On  the  side  of  the  Easterns  their  continued  admission  of  the 
existence  of  the  Latin  Church  as  a  part  of  the  true  CathoHc 
Church  is  manifest  not  only  from  their  conduct  on  all  public 
occasions,  whenever  there  has  been  any  communication  with  a 
view  to  reunion,  but  also  from  the  common  use  of  the  same  or 
similar  language  to  what  has  been  mentioned  above  in  the  ease 
of  the  Latins:  and  this  in  a  much  greater  degree.  Indeed  the 
doubt  most  likely  to  arise  in  the  mind  of  any  one  who  atten- 
tively considers  the  popular  use  of  language  among  members  of 
the  Eastern  Communion  (joined  with  the  almost  total  absence 
of  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  the  Latins,)  is  not  whether  they 
admit  the  true  life  of  the  Uoman-Catholic  Church,  but  whether 
they  do  not  unwittingly  doubt  or  deny  their  own.  The  Latins 
nnmistakeably  associate  both  the  title  and  the  idea  of  Catholicism 
with  their  own  Church,  and  only  by  a  little  lingering  incon- 
sistency  betray  a  consciousness  of  doubt  in  having  narrowed 
their  Catholicism  to  its  present  definition  :  but  the  Easterns  by 
taking  for  themselves,  as  they  do,  local  and  particular  titles, 
such  as  "  Eastern,"  "  Greek,"  or  "  Grceco-Russ,"  as  distinctive 
of  their  Church  and  religion,  by  conceding  practically  the  Greek 
epithet  "  Catholic"  as  a  distinctive  appellation  to  the  Latins,  and 
by  showing  so  little  disposition  to  dwell  either  upon  the  word  or 
the  idea  for  themselves,  go  far  to  admit  that  they  are  merely  a 
particular  Church,  or  an  aggregate  of  particular  Churches ;  that 
is,  (so  far  as  there  may  be  in  them  any  radical  hostility  to  the 
remaining  complement  of  Catholicism,)  either  schismatical  or 
heretical,  or  both.  But  this  is  move  than  we  want :  it  is  enough 
for  our  purpose  to  say  that  the  popular  speech  and  ideas  of  the 
Easterns  abundantly  recognize  the  Roman-Catholic  Church  as  a 
part,  at  least,  of  the  true  Catholic  Church.  No  better  instance, 
perhaps,  can  be  adduced  of  this  than  the  observation  so  com- 
mon in  the  mouths  of  Easterns,  and  not  of  ignorant  people  only 
but  of  the  most  learned  of  their  clergy  and  laity,  that  there 
have  been  but  Seven  General  Councils,  and  that  other  Councils 
held  since  have  not  been  of  equal  authority  "  because  of  the 
division  of  the  Churches  :"  or  again,  that  a  General  Council  now 
is  impossible  (that  is,  among  themselves,  or  among  the   Latins,) 


"  ORTHODOXY  "  AND  "  CATHOLICISM^'  21 

for  the  same  reason.  It  is  true  that  this  same  admission  seems 
to  have  been  made  also  by  the  Latins  in  favour  of  the  Greeks 
when  they  were  wilhng  that  the  Council  of  Florence,  if  only 
it  were  accepted,  should  be  reputed  and  called  the  "  Eir/hth 
General  Council :"  and  the  galleys  of  Pope  Eugenius  and  of  the 
Synod  of  Basle  racing  against  each  othei*,  and  contending  for 
the  accession  of  the  Greeks,  hint  something  of  the  same  sort. 
But  of  Greek  admissions  in  favour  of  the  Latins,  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  in  modern  times  is  that  contained  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Synod  of  Bethlehem  held  under  Dositheus  Patriarch  of 
Jerusalem  in  1672.  This  Synod,  in  speaking  of  the  Church, 
repeatedly  distinguishes  the  "  Western "  from  the  " Eastern" 
and  both  from  "  the  ivhole  Catholic  Church ;"  and  blames  the 
Lutherans  and  Calvinists  for  having  invented  heresies,  and  for 
having  gone  forth  from  "  that  Church"  (the  Western  or  Latin  cer- 
tainly,) "  in  which  their  ancestors  abiding  had  obtained  salvation." 

Yet  with  all  these  mutual  admissions,  or  half-admissions,  in 
favour  of  one  another,  the  two  Churches  are  practically  at  war. 
The  Latins  in  the  middle  ages,  without  any  shadow  of  reason, 
from  mere  hatred,  re-baptized  the  Easterns  in  Poland  and  Ger- 
many ;  and  still  reconcile  them  individually  as  schismatics  or 
heretics,  or  as  both.  And  the  Easterns  in  turn  reconcile  Latin 
proselytes  as  from  heresy  to  the  true  Church,  in  Russia  anoint- 
ing them  with  Chrism,  like  Arians  or  INIacedonians,  in  the 
Levant  even  Baptizing  them,  like  Jews  or  Turks  or  Heathens. 

As  for  the  Latins,  who  are  the  stronger  party,  their  conduct 
towards  the  Greeks  is  both  politic  and  necessary :  for  any  other 
conduct  would  be  in  fact  to  concede  to  them  the  main  question 
between  the  Churches.  But  as  regards  the  Greeks,  who  are  the 
weaker  party,  and  as  regards  the  interest  of  that  truth  which 
they  think  they  represent,  it  will  be  worth  while  to  consider  the 
origin  of  their  present  custom,  and  its  effect  on  their  controver- 
sial position,  and  the  question  what  would  be  the  bearing  and 
tendency  of  a  contrary  practice. 

The  complete  cutting  oflF  from  the  Catholic  and  Orthodox 
Church  of  any  body  of  men  who  are  truly  and  simply  heretics, 
and  the  practice  of  reconciling  them,  if  they  return,  whether  in  a 
body  or  as  individuals,  as  has  been  done  with  Arians,  Mace- 
donians, Nestorians,  Monophysites,  and  others,  is  as  far  from 


22  ON    TIIK     I'UESblNT    APPARENT    CONl'LU'T    P.ETWEEN 

liaviug  auy  bud  clicct  uu  the  Cliiu'ch  liersoli',  as  is  the  cutting 
away  of  dead  wood  far  from  hurting  a  living  tree.  On  the  con- 
trary, for  the  Churcli  to  have  remained  in  Communion  with 
death  would  have  affected  her  own  life.  But  if  we  suppose  a 
case  where  there  is  disease  in  any  part  of  a  living  body  but  not 
death,  so  that  the  diseased  part  remains  still  a  living  part,  then 
the  effect  of  a  total  severance  of  the  more  sound  part  from  the 
diseased  will  have  a  contrary  and  pernicious  effect  both  on  the 
sound  part  and  on  the  diseased.  For  the  diseased  part  will 
have  no  longer  any  influence  in  contact  with  it  to  correct  it ;  and 
the  sound  part  will  be  mutilated,  or  it  may  be,  even  destroyed 
by  losing  its  coherence  with  those  other  parts  which  are  no  less 
necessary  than  itself  (it  may  be  even  more  necessary,)  to  the 
perfection  or  life  of  the  whole  body.  Any  one  can  understand 
this  in  the  case  of  a  natural  living  body.  And  thus,  even  if  the 
Eastern  Church  were  to  the  Latin  in  extent  and  importance  as 
two  thirds  to  one  third,  and  were  spread  over  the  whole  globe, 
and  possessed  the  idea  and  the  title  of  "  Catholic,"  still,  if  the 
Latins  wei-e  not  really  and  mortally  heretics  essentially  as  well  as 
by  mere  form,  it  would  have  been  a  most  uncharitable  and  per- 
nicious fault  to  separate  them  altogether  from  Communion  as 
heretics,  and  abandon  them  to  their  error,  and  so  lose  all  chance 
of  influencing  them.  But  much  more  is  this  the  case  when  they 
arc  not  only  not  essentially  heretics,  but  possess  so  large  a  share 
and  interest  in  the  universal  body,  and  such  great  superiorities  in 
some  respects,  that  the  Eastern  Church  in  cutting  them  off  not 
only  loses  all  influence  over  them,  but  seems  even  rather  to 
bring  into  question  her  own  existence  than  to  affect  theirs.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  the  sound  part  were  to  remain  in  union  with 
the  diseased,  and  by  contact  to  preserve  its  influence,  then  even 
a  smaller  part  which  should  be  sound  and  healthy  might  correct 
disease  and  renew  health  even  in  a  larger,  always  supposing  that 
there  was  no  careless  or  indifterent  toleration  of  the  disease  or 
error. 

As  things  now  are,  the  Eastern  Church  has  absolutely  no  in- 
fluence on  the  Western.  She  has  cut  herself  off:  and  the 
Western,  being  materially  the  stronger  and  larger  of  the  two, 
strengthens  herself  by  this  very  separation  in  her  errors,  and 
boldly  calls  on  all  to  choose  the  one  Communion  or  the  other. 


"ORTHODOXV"    AND    "CATHOLICISM."  23 

But  let  any  one  consider  what  would  be  the  prospect  for  "  Or- 
thodoxy," if  only  one  national  Church  of  the  present  Latin  Com- 
munion, (let  us  suppose  the  Gallican,)  without  withdrawing 
from  the  rest,  confessed  the  common  fault,  and  called  upon  the 
rest  to  join  in  amending  it ;  or,  amending  it  at  once  for  itself, 
received  for  the  future  only  those  laity  and  clergy  from  other 
branches  of  the  Latin  Communion,  who,  on  examination,  should 
be  found  to  be  ])ersonally  free  from  the  disposition  to  defend 
error  ?  Would  not  such  a  state  of  things  be  most  hopeful  ? 
And  should  we  not  expect  to  see  immediately  individuals  in 
other  Latin  Churches  both  of  the  clergy  and  laity  avowing  their 
agreement  and  sympathy,  and  so  moving  from  all  quarters  the 
whole  body  towards  amendment  ?  But  if  any  one  local  Church 
of  the  present  Latin  Communion  would  probably  by  such  con- 
duct exert  so  great  an  influence,  and  form  so  hopeful  a  party, 
what  would  not  be  the  influence  of  the  Eastern  Church,  of  one 
whole  third  part  of  Christendom,  if  only  she  had  preserved,  or 
if  she  were  now  to  restore  her  coherence,  and  so  were  to  become 
capable  of  having  influence  at  all  ?  Certainly  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that,  if  she  has  truth  on  her  side,  she  would  speedily  effect 
the  reformation  of  the  West.  This  attitude  might  be  taken  up 
by  the  Eastern  Church  if  she  were  in  practice  to  adopt  some 
such  rule  as  the  following  ;  that — 

"  If  any  persons  coming  from  the  Latins  seek  to  communicate  in 
anij  Orthodox  Diocese,  such  persons  shall  first  be  examined,  and  if 
they  are  found  willing  to  recite  the  Creed  in  the  Canonical  form, 
and  personally  free  from  malicious  opposition  to  Orthodoxy  on 
that  and  other  points,  they  shall  he  received  as  brethren,  without 
troubling  them  for  the  existence  of  faults  which  they  acquiesce  in 
only  under  the  idea  of  authority,  but  are  personally  not  unwilling 
to  see  reformed." 

Such  an  attitude  towards  the  Latins,  an  attitude  of  half-ex- 
communication and  half-recognition,  would  correspond  with  that 
view  which  we  have  shown  to  be  taken  of  the  Latin  Church  by 
the  conscience  of  the  Eastern,  (namely,  that  on  the  great  point  it 
is  materially,  or  in  point  of  outward  form,  heretical  without  being 
intrinsically  so,  and  on  other  points  maintains  certain  grave 
errors  and  corruptions  which  yet  are  not  heresies ;)  and  it  would 
give  the  Eastern  Church  (without  any  recognition  of  error  small 


24  ON    THE    PRESENT    APPARENT    CONFLICT    BETWEEN 

or  great,)  the  prospect  of  exerting  a  salutary  and  healing  in- 
fluence over  the  whole  West,  and  of  restoring  the  unity  of  the 
whole  body. 

But  it  may  be  objected  that  such  a  course  is  new,  unheard  of, 
inconsistent,  impracticable ;  a  mere  scheme  of  human  policy,  in- 
vented after  a  separation  of  a  thousand  years  to  suit  the  appa- 
rent difficulties  of  the  case.  It  is  no  such  thing.  Whatever 
force  there  may  be  in  the  arguments  which  have  been  now  alleged 
in  favour  of  such  a  course,  it  has  another  and  an  anterior  claim 
upon  the  attention  of  all  members  of  the  Eastern  Church, 
namely  this,  that  it  is  the  view  which  was  first  taken,  and  by  the 
holiest  and  wisest  men,  in  their  own  Church  after  the  completion  of 
the  Schism.  For  after  the  full  ascertainment  of  the  depth  of 
the  differences  between  the  East  and  the  West,  after  the  mutual 
anathemas  of  the  Archbishops  of  old  and  new  Rome,  after  the 
time  not  of  Photius  only  but  of  Cerularius,  when  in  consequence 
of  the  Latins  still  continuing  from  long  habit  as  individuals  to 
recognize  the  Eastern  Church,  and  to  seek  the  Communion  from 
its  Clergy,  the  question  arose  how  they  ought  to  be  treated,  and 
some  said  in  one  way,  and  some  in  another,  and  this  question 
was  referred  to  the  most  holy  and  learned  Bishops  of  the  Eastern 
Church,  such  as  Theophylact  of  Bulgaria  and  Demetrius  Choma- 
tenus,  the  reply  and  sentence  of  such  men  was  this  :  that  the 
Latins  applying  for  Communion  should  be  examined  individu- 
ally, and  if  not  found  malicious  maintainers  of  the  errors  con- 
demned by  the  Church,  should  be  received  as  brethren. 

But  it  seemed  more  consistent  and  logical  to  certain  Canonists 
(especially  to  Theodore  Balsamon,)  to  reason  thus :  "  We  ex- 
communicate the  Pope  of  Rome  for  certain  errors  :  all  the  West- 
erns adhere  to  him,  and  to  his  errors ;  therefore  all  the  Westerns 
are  to  be  treated  simply  as  other  heretics,  and  a  Form  must  be 
])rovided  for  their  abjuration  and  reconciliation  :"  (for  the  gall  of 
bitterness  had  not  yet  drenched  the  Greeks  so  deeply  as  to  settle 
the  point  that  the  Latins  were  as  heathens  and  unbaptized :  it 
was  enough  then  for  general  practice  that  a  Form  should  be  pro- 
vided for  their  reconciliation.)  For  their  reconciliation  to  what  ? 
let  us  ask ;  (and  let  the  reader  attend  to  this  question  :)  To  the 
Catholic  truth  of  the  Catholic  or  Universal  Church,  as  in  the  case 
of  all  other  heretics  ?     No  ;  but  to  the  Catholic  truth  or  Ortho- 


"  ORTHODOXY    AND  "  CATHOLICISM."  25 

doxy  of  the  "  Eastern'''  or  "  Greek,''  that  is,  of  a  particular  would- 
be  universal  Church  :  an  attempt  and  a  pretension  by  its  own 
language  (necessarily  employed)  self-refuted  and  self-condemned. 
Thus  the  shortsighted  reasonings  of  controversial  Canonists 
were  preferred  to  the  judgments  of  Saints  :  the  absolute  separa- 
tion of  the  two  Churches  has  been  fixed  and  stereotyped  in  the 
Eastern  as  well  as  in  the  Latin  Church-law  and  ritual :  the  de- 
finition of  the  primary  sacrament  of  Baptism  itself,  and  the 
grace  of  regeneration  for  the  larger  part  of  Christendom,  has 
been  made  to  depend  upon  the  variable  will  of  men,  upon  the 
allowance  or  non-allowance  of  necessity  or  economy  by  spiteful 
rivals,  galled  by  the  sense  of  their  inferiority.  Rome  profits  by  the 
error  ;  "  Orthodoxy  "  sufiiers  by  it.  Heathens  and  Turks  and 
Sectaries  sneer,  and  draw  arguments  from  the  divisions  of  the 
Apostolic  Church  against  Christianity  itself;  and  "  the  Son  of 
God,"  as  was  foretold  by  Thcophylact,  has  "  suffered  a  great 
damage  in  that  heritage  which  is  given  Him  among  the  Gentiles." 


Here  follows  an  extract  from  the  Answers  of  Demetrius  Cho- 
inatenus,  Archbishop  of  Bulgaria  (a.d.  1203,)  to  Constantine 
Cabasilas,  Archbishop  of  Dyrrachium. 

"  Question.  How  are  the  Azymes  ofi'ered  by  the  Latins  to  be 
accounted  of,  as  common  or  holy?  And  in  like  manner  of  the 
vessels,  priestly  robes,  and  the  like,  which  are  used  for  their 
Service  ?     And  is  it  justifiable  in  them  to  wear  rings  ? 

"  Answer.  Canons  Ixx.  of  the  Holy  Apostles,  xxxvii.  of 
the  Synod  of  Laodicsea,  and  Ix.  of  the  Synod  of  Carthage, 
mention  the  Azymes  of  the  Jews,  and  Azymes  sent  on  festivals 
to  the  faithful  from  the  heretics,  and  forbid  the  faithful  to  re- 
ceive these,  or  to  keep  common  festivals  with  them  that  send 
them.  But  the  Latin  Azymes  are  mentioned  nowhere  by  any 
Canon,  for  this  reason,  as  it  would  seem,  that  it  was  later  that 
the  abuse  of  celebrating  in  Azymes  came  into  the  Roman 
Church.  However,  since  this  custom  came  up,  many  of  our 
people,  of  an  excessive  zeal,  have  in  private  writings  among 
themselves  exploded  this  as  a  monstrosity.     Nor  this  only,  but 


26  ON    THE    PRESENT    APPARENT    CONFLICT    BETWEEN 

also  the  doctrine  held  by  the  Latins  about  the  Procession  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  they  have  absolutely  condemned  as  strange  and 
erroneous.  And  many  other  customs  of  theirs,  as  departures 
from  the  tradition  of  the  Catholic  Church,  they  have  reckoned 
as  abominations,  and  have  rejected.  Some  nevertheless,  who 
have  taken  the  matter  more  mildly,  have  been  willing  to  use 
condescendence  towards  them  for  the  other  points,  knoiving  the 
stiff  and  haughty  character  of  the  nation,  and  the  mixture  they 
have  among  them  in  many  respects  of  barbarous  manners,  but 
in  one  point  only,  that  of  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
would  by  no  means  condescend  to  nor  allow  them.  One  such 
is  the  most  wise  Theophylact  of  Bulgaria,  of  blessed  memory ; 
who  in  his  treatise  sent  to  the  Deacon  and  Canstrisius  Nicholas, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Melesova,  after  blaming  such  as  compauied 
with  them  [the  Latins]  indifferently,  and  disused  their  own 
customs  altogether,  and  after  enumerating  their  apparent  faults, 
proceeds  as  follows  : 

"  '  I  for  my  own  part  think  that  some  of  these  things  need  no 
correction  at  all,  some  others  only  a  slight  correction,  and  such 
as  if  any  one  were  to  obtain,  he  might  do  the  Church  some 
little  satisfaction  ;  or  if  it  were  not  to  be  obtained,  the  failure 
would  involve  no  great  damage.  But  what  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  main  thing  to  make  Communion  with  the  Latins  to  be 
shunned  by  right-minded  people,  and  what,  if  it  remain  un- 
corrected, threatens  great  damage  to  that  inheritance  of  the 
Son  of  God  which  He  has  received  among  the  Gentiles,  this  I 
will  state  and  explain  to  you,  as  well  as  I  am  able.'  And  fur- 
ther on  :  '  This  therefore  is  the  capital  error,  and  what,  to  use 
Solomon's  words,  makes  them  run  into  a  snare  of  hell,  the 
innovation  which  they  have  made  in  the  Creed,  teaching  that  the 
Spirit  proceeds  from  the  Father  and  from  the  Son.'  And 
after  a  good  deal  more  :  '  But  whereas  many  have  also  against 
the  offering  of  Azymes  a  very  hot  zeal,  hotter  than  fire  itself,  and 
would  sooner  part  with  their  lives  than  give  up  their  opinion  on 
this  point ;  while  some  also  indulge  their  own  passion,  and  it 
seems  to  Paul  a  snare  of  the  devil ;  what  one  ought  to  reply 
to  these  we  will  state  by-and-by,  so  as  to  chastise  the  immo- 
derate zeal  of  the  former,  and  to  show  to  the  latter  that  that 
is  really  low  which  refuses  to   come   down.'     And   again,  after 


"orthodoxy"    and    "CATHOLICISM."  27 

much  more  :  '  If  the  Westerns  then  maintain  any  error  of  doc- 
trine  endangering   the   faith  which  we   have   received  from  the 
Fathers,  (such  as  is  their  addition  to  the  Creed  concerning  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which  is  most  dangerous,)  whoever  admits  this 
as  not  needing  correction,  is  himself  not  to   be  tolerated :  not 
though  they  speak  big  words  from  their  throne  which  they,  lofty 
themselves,  set  up  loftily  on  high  ;  not  though  they  advance  the 
confession  of  Peter  ;  not  though  they  dwell  on  the  blessing  given 
upon  that  confession ;  not  though   they  shake  in  our  faces  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom.'     And   again,  after  a  good   deal  more: 
'  Wc  will  not  therefore  cither  for  the  Azymes  or  for   the  Fasts 
contend  obstinately  against  the  obstinate  self-will  of  their  na- 
tion :  for  this  is  only  to  clap  one  tile  against   another,  and  try 
to  make  it  stick,  without  putting  any  thing  of  moister  temper 
between   which   might  perhaps   cement  them   together.      Nor, 
still  less,  on  account  of  the  rest  of  the  points  enumerated,  on 
which  when  they  admit   that  they  practise  what  is  objected  to 
them,  except  the  eating  of  things  strangled,  (for  this    religious 
Latins  endure  not  so  much  as  to  hear  named,  no  more  than  we 
do  ourselves  ;  no  more  than  fornication,  or  robbery ;  though  the 
more  savage  and  bestial  among   them   may  do  it,)  they  seem  to 
many  to  be  guilty  of  unpardonable  transgressions.     Such  judg- 
ments, I  think,  are  not  to  be  assented  to  by  any  man  who  is 
versed  in  ecclesiastical  history,  and  has  learned  that   it  is  not 
every  custom  which  can  sever  from  the  Church,  but   that  only 
which  leads  to  a  difference  of  dogma.     And  these  things,  which 
our  wonderfully  wise  judges  will  have  to   be  such  great  errors, 
are  most  certainly  nothing  more  than  customs,  some  of  them 
introduced  of  pious  feeling,  as  the  custom  of  kissing  the  pave- 
ment of  the  church,  (for  we  must  not  listen  to  that  satanical 
calumny  that  the  Latins  reject  the  veneration  of  Icons,)  others 
out  of  economy  and  condescension  possibly  to  spiritual,  but  at 
any  rate  to  bodily  infirmity,  as  the  allowance  of  their  monks, 
when  unwell,  to  eat  flesh-meat,  and  that  in  moderation,  and  as 
becomes  spiritual  persons.     But  if  some  make  this  too  general, 
as  a  thing  indifferent,  their  case  may  demand  other  language, 
which  does  not  apply  to  those  who  in  the  first  instance  intro- 
duced on  grounds  of  reason  this  condescendence.     And  other 
customs  there  are,  which  for  certain  other  reasons  have  come  to 
be  rooted  m  the  Latin  Churches.      Of  which  none  can  separate 


28  ON    THE    PRESENT    APPARENT    CONFLICT    BETWEEN 

US  from  them.  No  :  at  least  not  if  the  case  be  judged  by  such 
as  are  willing  to  follow  the  rules  of  the  Fathers.  ^Vnd  if  I 
should  not  be  obliged  to  go  to  too  great  length,  and  go  near  to 
writing  a  history,  I  could  enumerate  to  you  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  instances  of  customs  allowed  by  the  ancient  Fa- 
thers in  order  to  win  the  souls  of  their  brethren.  For  they 
knew  the  duty  of  not  pleasing  themselves,  but  striving  every 
one  to  please  his  neighbour,  for  good,  unto  edification.  But  now 
(alas  for  our  dropsical  tumour  of  pride,)  we  say  And  who  is 
rrnj  neighbour  ?  and  cast  down  thousands  upon  thousands  that 
really  stand,  that  we  may  have  our  own  will.'  Afterwards  he 
severely  inveighs  against  them  that  indiscriminately  and  im- 
moderately revile  the  Latin  usages,  and  reckon  them  as  en- 
ormous and  excommunicable  errors. 

"  So  from  the  contents  of  this  most  wisely  written  com- 
position we  may  understand,  that  as  regards  every  nation 
which  has  received  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  we  ought  as  little 
as  possible  to  notice  any  defects  which  there  may  be  in 
their  usages ;  but,  contrariwise,  any  strange  and  erroneous 
doctrines  we  ought  very  jealously  to  suspect,  and  flee  from 
them  as  from  eating  cancers,  which  St.  Paul  mentions,  or 
as  from  any  other  dangerous  and  contagious  diseases.  Since 
mere  usages  have  not,  but  evil  doctrines  have  such  force  as  to 
separate  us  from  them.  Wherefore  neither  the  Azymes  con- 
secrated by  the  Latins,  nor  the  vessels  which  receive  these  and 
which  are  used  by  them  in  their  ministration,  nor  consequently 
their  sacred  vestments,  nor  any  thing  of  the  same  kind,  shall  by 
us  be  accounted  defiled.  How  should  it,  when  they  are  sealed 
by  the  invocation  of  the  Lord's  name,  and  hallowed,  as  we 
hear,  by  the  holy  Prayers  of  James  the  Lord's  Brother  ?  But 
if  any  one  object  that  if  the  Azymes  of  the  Latins  are  not  de- 
filed, there  will  be  no  harm  to  us  if  we  go  a  step  further,  and 
partake  of  them,  we  answer,  that  since,  as  has  been  said  above, 
this  custom  of  Azymes,  together  with  others,  is  now  rooted  in 
the  Western  Churches,  even  as  among  ourselves  the  custom 
of  offering  and  consecrating  leavened  bread,  departure  from 
their  own  respective  customs  will  be  impossible  for  Christians 
on  either  side,  unless  the  one  side  should  ever  choose  to  go  over 
to  the  other,  and  embrace  its  Communion;  [that  is,  in  this 
respect,  so  as  to  observe  in  common  with   it  tJie   same  usage  of 


"  ORTHODOXY  "  AND  "  CATHOLICISM."         29 

Azymcs  or  leavened  bread  for  the  future.]  Nevertheless,  as 
they  consider  what  wc  consecrate,  so  we  also  consider  what  they 
consecrate  to  be  holy.  And  wc  are  not  wrong.  For  the  Ordi- 
nations even  of  heretics  are  admitted  by  the  Orthodox,  according 
to  the  tradition  of  the  Fathers,  when  the  persons  Ordained  by 
heretics  either  are  Orthodox,  or  become  so  afterwards."  .... 

"  Question.  Is  it  any  harm  for  a  Bishop  to  enter  the  churches 
of  the  Latins,  and  to  worship  in  them,  on  any  occasion  when  he 
may  be  invited  by  them  ?  And  should  he  give  them  the 
xarajtAao-Tov,  [that  is,  the  'Avri^capov  or  blessed  bread,]  when  they 
are  present  at  the  Liturgy  in  the  holy  and  Catholic  Church  ? 

"Answer.  Some  of  the  Latins  there  are  who  do  not  at  all 
differ  from  our  customs  either  doctrinal  or  ecclesiastical,  but  are, 
as  one  may  say,  in  this  respect  double-sided  or  neutral.  As 
then  it  is  our  duty,  and  agreeable  to  piety,  stiffly  to  oppose  them 
that  essentially  differ  from  us,  especially  in  the  point  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  on  the  other 
hand  to  use  condescendence  towards  them  that  are  not  such, 
and  to  go  with  them  into  their  churches,  will  be  no  fault  in  the 
Bishop  who  is  charged  v.'ith,  and  aims  after,  such  economy  as 
befits  a  steward  of  souls.  Wherefore  he  will  both  go,  when 
invited,  to  their  churches  without  scruple,  (for  they  too,  no  less 
than  we  ourselves,  are  worshippers  of  the  holy  Icons,  and  set 
them  up  in  their  churches,)  and  will  give  them  freely  the 
Antidoron  when  they  are  present  in  the  Catholic  Church  and 
come  up  to  receive  it.  For  this  custom  may  have  the  effect 
of  gradually  drawing  them  over  altogether  to  our  holy  usages 
and  doctrines.  Italy  itself  is  thickly  studded  with  churches  of 
the  holy  Apostles  and  Martyrs,  the  chief  of  which  is  the  cele- 
brated Church  of  Peter  the  Chief  of  the  Apostles  at  Rome. 
Into  these  churches  our  people  go  freely,  priests  and  laymen 
alike,  and  make  their  prayers  to  God,  and  render  to  the  Saints 
who  are  honoured  in  them  their  due  relative  veneration  and 
honour.  And  by  doing  this  they  incur  no  manner  of  blame, 
the  churches  in  question  being  all  under  the  Latins.  We  re- 
member that  there  were  some  Questions  asked  a  good  many 
years  ago  by  Mark  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  of  blessed  memory, 
and  Answers  written  to  the  same  by  Theodore  Balsamon,  late 
Patriarch  of  Antioch.     Among  these  there  was  one  Question  re- 


30  ON    THE    PRESENT    APPARENT    CONFLICT    BETWEEN 

latiug  to  Latin  captives,  namely,  whether  sucli  ought  to  he 
admitted,  when  they  come  to  the  Catholic  churches  and  seek  to 
partake  of  the  divine  Sacraments  ?  and  subjoined  to  this  an 
Answer  altogether  forbidding  that  the  aforesaid  Latins  should  be 
admitted  to  receive  the  divine  Communion  at  the  hands  of  our 
priests.  The  Answer  professed  to  ground  itself  upon  the  holy 
Scripture,  and  quoted  that  saying  of  the  Lord,  '  He  that  is  not 
with  Me  is  against  Me;  and  he  that  gathereth  not  with  Me 
scattereth.'  This  Answer  however  was  disapproved  of  by  many  of 
the  most  eminent  men  who  were  living  at  that  time,  as  showing 
too  great  harshness  and  bitterness,  and  an  unjustifiable  tone, 
in  blaming  the  Latin  forms  and  customs ;  '  because  all  this,^  they 
said,  '  has  never  been  read  or  decreed  synodically,  nor  have  they 
ever  been  publicly  rejected  as  heretics  ;  but  both  eat  with  us, 
and  pray  with  us.  And  any  one,'  they  said,  'may  readily  prove 
the  justness  of  this  reasoning  from  Canon  xv.  of  the  holy 
Synod  which  is  called  the  First  and  Second  of  Constantinople. 
And  again  because  this  very  fact  of  the  Latins  coming  to  us, 
and  seeking  to  communicate  at  our  hands  of  the  holy  Oblation 
which  is  made  with  leavened  bread,  shows  plainly  that  they 
cannot  think  much  of  their  Azymes,  nor  make  any  great  point 
of  sticking  to  them  :  else  they  would  not  come  to  our  celebra- 
tion of  the  Divine  Mysteries.'  These  too,  in  order  to  support 
their  own  view  from  the  Gospel,  alleged  what  was  said  by  St. 
John  to  the  Lord,  '  We  saw,'  he  said,  '  one  casting  out  devils  in 
Thy  name,  and  we  forbade  him,  because  he  followeth  not  with  us. 
And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  Forbid  him  not :  for  ivhosoever  is  not 
against  us  is  for  us.'  They  urged  also  in  addition  that  the 
words  '  He  that  is  not  ivith  Me  is  against  Me  :'  are  plainly  and 
exclusively  intended  by  our  Saviour  for  the  devil,  as  the  con- 
text of  the  Gospel  in  the  same  place  shows.  For  as  Satan  is  an 
enemy  from  the  beginning,  and  abides  unchangeable  in  his 
malice,  and  is  absolutely  incapable  of  repentance,  in  this  sense 
he,  not  being  with  the  Lord,  is  against  Him,  and  fi'om  so  being 
has  his  name  Satan,  or  adversary :  inasmuch  as  the  Lord  loveth 
Ilis  own  creation  and  gathereth  it  to  Himself,  but  Satan  hateth 
it  and  scattereth.  But  the  words  '  He  ivho  is  not  against  us  is 
for  us  .•'  are  spoken  in  reference  to  a  man  who,  though  he  follows 
not  Jesus,  yet  emulates  them  that  do  follow  Him,  and   in  His 


"orthodoxy''    and    "CATHOLICISM."  31 

name  casts  out  devils,  and  so  from  walking  apart  may  easily 
change  to  following.  For  for  mere  hviman  infirmity  there  is  a 
remedy,  namely,  conversion  and  repentance,  and  to  change  from 
what  is  worse  to  what  is  better.  They  appealed  also  to  the 
judgment  on  this  same  subject  of  Theophylact,  the  most  wise 
Archbishop  of  Bulgaria,  which  we  have  given  in  an  abridged 
form  above  in  another  of  our  Answers,  and  which  discourses  of 
condescension  and  economy  in  a  manner  worthy  both  of  admi- 
ration and  of  praise.  And  so  they  who  argued  against  the 
opinion  of  Balsamon,  as  has  been  related,  were  judged  to  have 
insisted  piously  and  reasonably  for  giving  the  preference  over 
inflexible  harshness  to  economy,  in  order  that  so,  instead  of  cast- 
ing down,  we  may  gently  and  gradually  win  our  brethren,  for 
whom  our  common  Saviour  and  Lord  shed  His  own  most  pre- 
cious blood." — Leunclavii  Juris  Grceco-Romani,  t^c,  a.d.  1596. 
Tom.  /.,  ;j.  318—323. 


DISSERTATION  III. 

THE  ASPECT  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  PART  OF  THE  ORTHODOX  CHURCH 
AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION  OF  LU- 
THER ;  BEING  **  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE 
MUSCOVITES,  WRITTEN  BY  JOHN  FABER,  FOR  FERDINAND 
KING  OF  THE  ROMANS,  TO  WHOM  HE  WAS  CONFESSOR.'^* 
A.D.   1525. 

"  The  Muscovites  follow  the  Christian  faith  which  they  say 
was  first  preached  to  them  by  the  Apostle  St.  Andrew  the  brother 
of  Simon  Peter.  Also  all  that  was  decreed  under  Constantine 
the  Great  by  the  three  hundred  and  eighteen  Bishops  at  Nice 
of  Bithynia,  in  the  first  Nicene  Council,  and  all  the  tradition 
and  teaching  of  Basil  the  Great  and  St.  John  Chrysostom  they 
believe  to  be  so  sacred,  authoritative,  and  authentic,  that  it  has 
never  been  lawful  for  any  to  depart  therefrom  so  much  as  a 
hairsbreadth,  any  more  than  from  the  Gospel  of  Christ  itself. 
And  such  is  their  sobermindedness,  that  whatever  has  once  been 
decided  by  the  holy  Fathers  in  their  Councils,  no  one  of  their 
profession  ever  dares  to  make  a  question  of  it  afterwards.  But 
if  any  difficulty  either  about  faith  or  ritual  matters  arise,  it  is  all 
referred  to  the  Archbishop  and  the  rest  of  the  Bishops,  to  be 
determined  solely  by  their  judgment.  Nor  is  any  thing  left  to 
the  variableness  and  diversity  of  popular  opinion.  For  the 
Priest's  lips  keep  the  law  of  God,  and  the  law  is  to  be  sought  at 

*  This  account  is  translated  from  the  Latin  text  of  a  book  intitled  "  De  Rus- 
sorum,  Moscovitarum,  et  Tartarorum  Religione,  8fc.,  Spirce,  Anno  mdlxxxii." 
p.  170.  Its  author,  John  Faber,  was  a  German  Dominican,  of  great  note  for 
his  numerous  and  powerful  writings  against  the  Lutherans,  from  the  title  of  one 
of  which,  and  for  distinction's  sake,  he  was  sometimes  surnamed  "  Malleus 
H(preticorum."  He  was  Canon  of  Constance  on  the  Rhine,  and  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Vienna.     He  died  in  the  year  1541. 


ASPECT    OF    THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH,    A.D.  1525.  33 

his  mouth.  Tiicy  bave  an  Archbishop  who  has  his  Chair  as 
Primate  in  the  city  of  ]\Iosco\v,  where  is  the  residence  of  the 
Emperor.  There  are  also  many  Bishops  besides,  as  one  at  Nov- 
gorod, another  at  Rostoff,  another  at  Souzdal,  another  at  Vladi- 
mir, another  at  Smolensk,  others  at  Riazan,  Kolomna,  Vologda, 
Tver,  &c.,  who  have  each  their  own  separate  dioceses.  All 
these  Bishops  acknowledge  the  above-mentioned  Archbishop  as 
their  head  :  and  the  Archbishop,  before  the  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople fell  under  the  tyranny  of  the  Mahometans,  had 
always  acknowledged  that  Patriarch  as  his  superior;  (though  they 
confess  that  before  him  again  the  Roman  Pontiff,  as  successor 
of  Peter,  has  ever  and  of  right  held  precedence.)  Nor  at  the 
present  day  is  the  Emperor  of  the  Russians  unmindful  of  this 
relation,  but  is  sttll  very  attentive  in  keeping  up  the  same  pious 
respect ;  for  it  is  his  custom,  even  to  this  present,  to  send  alms 
year  by  year  to  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  to  help  him  to 
live  and  to  wait  patiently  for  the  end  of  his  Egyptian  bondage. 
Among  the  Muscovites  the  law  and  rule  is  that  Priests  and  all 
clerks  are  to  be  ordained  by  Bishops  only.  Nor  can  any  mere 
Presbyter  ever  give  Confirmation.* 

"  These  same,  that  is  the  Bishops,  are  they  that  on  Holy 
Thursday  consecrate  and  make  the  Chrism  and  the  Oil  which 
are  afterwards  used  in  Baptism,  in  Confirmation,  and  in  the 
Anointing  of  the  sick.  They  too  alone  institute  and  deprive 
Priests :  nor  can  they  ever  be  judged  or  censured  by  laymen : 
in  which  respect  they  do  well,  keeping  before  their  eyes  St.  Paul's 
teaching  to  Timothy,  where  he  says,  'Against  an  Elder  receive 
not  an  accusation  but  before  two  or  three  witnesses.'  So  not 
even  the  Emperor  himself  ever  interferes  respecting  the  punish- 
ment of  Clerks  :  for  this  they  with  one  accord  affirm  and  teach 
belongs  only  to  the  Bishop,  to  rebuke  and  punish  those  who  by 
the  order  of  the  Gospel  and  their  call  into  the  Lord's  inheri- 
tance have  been   placed   under  his  jurisdiction.     The  Bishops 

*  A  mistake,  which  may  possibly  have  arisen  from  the  Russian  informant's  not 
having  understood  the  technical  use  of  the  word  Confirmatio  among  the  Latins, 
The  author  continues,  giving  his  own  inference,  thus  :  "  Hoc  enim  muneris 
Episcopo  soli  iucumbere  asserunt,  ut,  posteaquam  tinctus  aqua  adultus  fiat,  per 
impositionem  manuum  Episcopi  et  signaculum  crucls  adeptse  fidei  testimonium 
reddat,  firmeturque  per  unctionem  quae  in  fronte  fieri  solet." 

D 


34  ASPECT    OF    THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH    AT    THE 

have  also  their  Vicars  and  Officials,  hkc  ours,  who  exercise  juris- 
diction over  those  subject  to  them,  and  administer  justice  in 
ecclesiastical  matters.  The  Bishops  also  are  maintained  from 
tithes,  as  has  been  aj)pointcd  by  God  :  they  possess  estates 
which  have  been  legally  granted  to  them  :  they  are  lords  of 
manors  and  castles.  The  rest  of  the  Priests  live  from  certain 
tithes,  oblations,  and  various  other  sources  derived  both  from 
the  living  and  from  the  dead.  For  they  have  Benefices  founded 
for  them,  the  patrons  of  which  are  spiritual  as  well  as  lay  per- 
sons. However  in  this  matter  they  are  stricter  than  we,  who  are 
often  only  too  lax  :  for  they  do  not  easily  give  any  Ecclesiasti- 
cal office,  or  confer  any  benefice,  unless  the  man  be  ascertained 
to  be  fit  by  really  competent  persons,  that  is  to  say,  by  the 
Bishops  or  their  Vicars.  The  Bishops  have  their  own  house- 
holds consisting  both  of  nobles  and  of  others.  And  assuredly 
it  is  on  these,  that  is,  the  Bishops,  that  the  whole  religion  of  the 
Russians  turns,  either  to  stand  or  fall.  They  celebrate  the  Di- 
vine Mysteries  often,  and  especially  when  they  hold  any  meeting 
with  their  Emperor.  For  the  insignia  of  their  Order  they  use  a 
staff  and  a  mitre,  as  is  the  manner  of  our  Bishops.  The  abste- 
miousness of  them  all,  the  Archbishop  as  well  as  the  other 
Bishops,  in  meat  and  drink  is  great  and  most  remarkable,  and 
indeed  above  all  praise,  falling  not  short  of  that  of  the  monks 
of  those  regions,  who  are  exceedingly  numerous  ;  and  these  arc 
all  bound  by  their  rule  never  so  much  as  to  taste  flesh  for  food. 
Not  far  from  the  city  of  Moscow  there  is  a  very  great  monastery 
in  which  there  are  generally  about  three  hundred  brethren  living 
together  under  the  Bule  of  St.  Basil  the  Great ;  where  is  the 
tomb  of  the  holy  Abbot  Sergius  (the  founder),  which  is  visited 
by  multitudes  of  strangers  even  from  the  most  distant  provinces. 
For  it  has  become  famous  by  a  vast  number  of  miracles  which 
have  been  wrought  at  it,  and  which  well  deserve  the  admiration 
of  Christians.  Of  which  I  shall  be  content  here  to  mention 
one  only,  a  most  notable  one,  which  occurred  there  only  a  few 
years  ago,  when  two  blind  men  had  their  sight  restored  to  them. 
For  that  Abbot  during  his  lifetime  exhibited  such  signs  of  sanc- 
tity, that  men  readily  persuaded  themselves  and  believe  that  he 
has  now  great  power  with  God,  and  can  obtain  many  things  for 
men  by  his  prayers.     And  so  they  pay  frequent  visits  and  in 


BEGINNIN^G    OF    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  35 

great  numbers  to  his  tomb,  and  honour  it  with  singular  devotion. 
For  indeed  all  the  monks  and  nuns  who  are  in  their  monasteries, 
and  who  are  all  under  one  and  the  same  rule  of  the  Black  Habit, 
as  it  is  called,  live  with  such  strictness  of  religion  as  to  win  not 
merely  admiration  but  the  very  deepest  reverence.  Nor  is  the 
vow  counted  so  light  a  matter  with  them  as  it  is  now-a-days 
among  us.  But  when  any  one  has  once  gone  into  a  monastei-y 
he  can  never  afterwards  under  any  pretext,  or  by  any  indulgence 
whatever,  leave  it,  or  disengage  himself  from  his  vow.  The 
vows  which  they  make  are  threefold,  as  with  us,  of  obedience, 
poverty,  and  chastity,  which  if  any  one  breaks  and  leaves  his 
monastery,  and  is  afterwards  taken,  his  punishment  for  so  hein- 
ous an  offence  is  imprisonment  for  life.  So  sacred  are  the  vows 
held  with  them  :  insomuch  that  great  as  is  the  authority  of  the 
Archbishop  and  Bishops  among  the  Russians,  they  have  no 
power  whatever  to  make  any  relaxation  in  such  matters ;  the 
Scriptures,  they  say,  of  both  Testaments  teaching  that  men  who 
vow  must  also  perform  unto  the  Lord  their  vows.  And  so 
naturally  they  think  too  much  of  chastity  to  allow  either 
monks  ever  to  marry  wives  or  nuns  to  be  married  to  husbands ; 
that  being  forbidden  by  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  by  the  whole 
Church.  A  man  who  has  married  a  maid  of  good  reputa- 
tion is  with  them  ordained  to  the  Priesthood,  but  cannot  be 
received  as  a  monk.  But  a  Bishop  or  Priest  who  has  been 
ordained  unmarried  can  never  marry,  but  must  live  in  celibacy. 
If  any  one  be  guilty  of  concubinage  (a  crime  however  which 
is  of  the  rarest  among  the  Russians,)  he  is  condemned  by 
the  Bishop  to  the  severest  punishment,  and  is  deprived  of 
his  benefice.  And  when  any  Clerk  has  lost  his  wife,  whom 
he  married  at  the  first,  by  death,  he  can  never  marry  an- 
other. For  St.  Paul  teaches  us  that  a  Bishop  (or  Priest)  is 
not  to  be  a  man  twice  married,  but  '  the  husband  of  one  wife.' 
And  further,  as  the  crowning  mark  of  their  religious  reverence 
and  zeal,  they  observe  as  a  rule  that  when  a  married  Priest  is  to 
celebrate  Divine  Offices,  and  more  especially  when  he  is  to 
celebrate  the  Mass,  he  is  on  no  account  the  night  before  to  sleep 
with  his  wife.  And  for  the  greater  reverence  they  keep  apart 
the  following  night  also.  Such  is  their  respect  for  the  great- 
ness of  the  Mystery  of  the  Lord's  Body  and  Blood  ;  such  their 

d2 


36  ASPLCT    or    THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH    AT    THE 

devotion  ami  pious  feeling.  After  this  let  our  Priests  consider 
with  what  j)ol luted  bands  they  too  often  touch  this  most  holy 
Sacrament,  the  pledge  of  our  entire  redemption.  AYould  that 
the  example  of  David  could  move  them  (It  alone  should  be 
enough  to  do  so;)  who,  though  ever  so  fauiished^  would  still  have 
been  refused  the  Shew-Bread  by  Abimelec  unless  he  and  his  fol- 
lowers had  for  the  two  days  before  been  j^arted  from  their  wives. 
How  then  ought  not  he  also  at  least  equally  to  observe  purity  who 
is  to  touch  the  holy  vessels  of  the  Lord,  nay,  who  is  to  administer 
and  handle  the  Lord  Himself?  Another  primary  duty  of 
Priests  is  that  of  announcing  to  the  people  Christ's  Gospel  of 
peace  and  salvation  ;  which  is  done  among  them  everywhere 
[Seldom  however,  except  by  Bishops.]  on  all  Lord's  Days,  and  on 
Festivals  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  the  Apostles,  and  certain 
Confessors  and  Martyrs.  They  have  also  a  great  reverence  for 
the  Virgin  Mary,  and  frequently  invoke  her,  as  the  Mother  of 
Christ,  to  intercede  with  her  Son.  For  they  rightly  think 
that  she,  being  the  Mother  of  God,  can  obtain  for  us  on  earth 
many  things  from  her  Son.  And  so  they  celebrate  the  Fes- 
tivals of  her  Annunciation,  Purification,  Nativity,  and  Assump- 
tion, and  the  rest,  with  stated  Fasts,  ceremonies,  and  Masses, 
read  or  sung,  [The  Easterns  have  not  this  distinction.]  according 
to  the  Ritual  which  they  have  in  common  with  the  Church  of 
the  Greeks.  As  also  they  do  all  the  year  round,  except  in  Lent, 
when  they  celebrate  [on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays]  the  Mass  of 
St.  Gregory  Dialogus,  [that  is,  the  Liturgy  of  the  Presanctified.] 
Both  the  forms  of  their  Mass  are  thrice  as  long  as  that  which 
is  commonly  used  among  the  Latins.  The  people  come  to  hear 
it  with  great  devotion,  as  if  they  were  all  about  to  Communicate. 
Their  Mass  differs  from  ours  in  this,  that  the  Muscovites  conse- 
crate, after  the  manner  of  the  Greeks,  in  leavened  bread.  Also 
they  mix  in  the  chalice,  in  equal  quantities,  red  wine  and  water. 
[Not  so.]  And  this  water  they  will  have  warm;*  because,  they 
say,  it  was  not  without  a  deep  mystery  that  there  came  forth 
from  the  Lord's  side  blood  and  water,  which  latter  we  must 
suppose  to  have  been  warm  ;  else  it  could  hardly  be  regarded  as 

*  This  is  an  incorrect  allusion  to  another  ceremony  totally  different  from  the 
mixture  of  the  cup  at  the  Prothesis,  namely,  that  of  pouring  in  a  little  warm  water 
after  the  Consecration. 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.        37 

a  miracle.     And  this   Sacrament   of  Christ's  Body  and  Blood 
is   consecrated  only  by  a  Priest,  who  is   vested  nearly  like   our 
Priests  in  a  white  robe  (stola  alba),  and  lifts  up  his  whole  mind 
to  God  with  purpose  to   make   that  Sacrament   which  Christ 
left  us  in  His   Last   Supper  for  a   sufficient   pledge  of  all  His 
promises,  as  the   whole  world   confesses.     The  Epistle  too  and 
the  Gospel  they  have  in  their  Masses,  just  as  we  have  in  ours. 
But  after  the  reading  of  the  Gospel  the  Nicene  Creed  does  not 
follow  immediately ;  for  it  is  sung  later,  after  the   Angelic  [or 
Cherubic]    Hymn,  which   is   [not  to  be  confounded  with]  the 
*  Sanctus.'      After  the    [end  of   the  Consecration,   but    before 
the]  Lord's  Prayer  there  follows  an  Anthem  in  honour  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  Mary.     The   Consecration  is   made  like  ours  by 
Christ's   own  Words    [together  with   the    Invocation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost]  which  they  think   have  such  power,  that   upon 
their  being  uttered  by  the  Priest  the  creature  gives  place  to  its 
Creator  :  and  that  this  cannot  be  otherwise.     Such  being  their 
manner  of  celebrating,  the  bread   which   is   brought  for  it  is  a 
small  barley  [wheaten]  loaf  or  cake  of  a  certain  size,  having  the 
Host  in  the  middle  with  the  form  of  the  Crucifix  stamped  on  it 
as  with  us  :  [really  a  Cross,  with  certain  letters.]    And  this,  after 
it  has  by  the  force  of  the  Consecration  been  changed  into  the 
Body  of  Christ,  the  Priest  takes  to  himself  and  consumes,  while 
the  rest  of  the   bread  he    [afterwards]  distributes  cut  up  into 
small  pieces  to  such  of  the  congregation  as  come  up  to  him  to 
receive  it.     And  this   they  each    receive,   not  as  the  Body  of 
Christ  but  as  blessed  and  in  a  certain  sense  holy  bread,  with 
the  utmost  reverence.     These  their  IMasses  they  use  to  celebrate 
to  the  special  honour  of  the  Trinity,  of  the  Blessed  Virgin, 
and  of  other   Saints.      And  as  beyond  a  doubt   they  have  the 
belief  of  Purgatory  [Rather,  although  they  disclaim  the  belief  of 
Purgatory,]  they  make   diligent  prayers  for  the  departed,  and 
help  them  with  Masses.     Tn   this  point   indeed  so  religious  are 
they,  that  they  commonly  keep  two  anniversary  days,  as  they  are 
called,  for  the  dead  -,  one  the  actual  day  of  the  death,  the  other 
the  day  of  the  Saint  whose  name  the  deceased  bore.     In  addition 
there   are   oblations   and   alms,  which   the  Christians   in   those 
parts  on  such  and  other  occasions  make  largely.     Ail  this  their 
llitual  and  especially  their  Liturgies  they  professed  to  have  pre- 


38  ASPECT    OF    THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH    AT    THE 

served  entire  as  instituted  by  tbe  primitive  Church  and  handed 
down  by  Chrysostom,  Basil  the  Great,  and  Gregory  Dialogus. 
Thus  much  then  shall  suffice,  though  too  brief,  for  this  great 
Mystery,  The  Sacrament  of  the  Eucharist,  according  to  their 
use,  is  administered  to  the  people  at  the  same  season  at  which 
it  was  first  instituted  by  Christ  Himself  and  afterwards 
freqncnted  by  the  Church,  that  is,  at  the  season  of  Easter ; 
though  with  an  order  perhaps  somewhat  different  from  the  prac- 
tice and  decree  of  the  Roman  Church.  Baptism  they  consider 
as  the  first,  and  so,  in  a  sense,  as  the  chief  Sacrament :  where- 
fore if  any  one  neglect  or  contemn  it,  it  is  with  them  a  capital 
crime.  For  the  same  reason  they  baptize  children,  in  the  Name 
of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  For  conferring  it 
[publicly,]  however  great  may  be  the  necessity,  no  man  is  thought 
to  be  a  competent  minister  but  a  Priest.  Before  the  administra- 
tion of  Baptism  there  are  a  number  of  devout  Prayers  said  by 
the  Priest,  the  relatives,  the  godparents,  the  neighbours  and 
friends,  and  lastly  by  all  the  bystanders  ;  that  the  Almighty  and 
most  merciful  God  will  be  pleased  to  give  the  fulness  of 
His  grace  from  heaven  to  the  child,  and  to  be  with  him 
through  all  the  course  of  his  life.  After  which  Prayers  the 
child  is  baptized  in  the  Church  (which  has  a  Baptistery  piovided 
for  such  occasions,)  or  perhaps  in  winter,  to  avoid  the  severe 
cold,  in  a  private  house.  As  witnesses  there  must  be  present 
godfathers  and  godmothers,  as  with  us,  who  are  made  to  pledge 
themselves  that  they  will  bear  that  Baptism  in  mind ;  that  so 
soon  as  the  age  of  the  child  admits  or  requires  it,  they  will  not 
neglect  to  instruct  him  in  the  faith  ;  that  they  will  praise  God 
for  so  great  a  benefit,  and  pray  Him  to  increase  daily  this  most 
divine  gift  of  faith  now  given.  And  so,  after  the  reading  of  the 
])revious  Prayers,  with  which  are  joined  also  Exorcisms,  the 
child,  if  it  aj)pear  strong  and  healthy,  is  thrice  plunged  all  over 
in  the  water  :  otherwise  it  has  water  applied  to  it ;  though  this 
is  seldom,  as  aspersion  is  held  to  be  insufficient.  Meanwhile 
Oil  and  Chrism  are  also  applied  to  its  forehead  and  shoulders. 
But  the  salt  which  our  Priests  use  in  Baptizing,  and  the  mud 
made  of  sjnttle  and  dust,  is  not  much  approved  by  the  Musco- 
vites. But  the  triple  Abrenunciatiou  of  Satan,  and  the  triple 
Confession  of  the  Faith,  they  retain  in  use.     Being  asked  next 


BEGINNING    OF    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  IM) 

by  US  what  they  thouglit  of  Circumcision,  and  whether  they 
practised  it,  they  replied  that  nothing  was  further  from  their 
religion  than  the  observance  of  any  particle,  however  small,  of 
the  old  Judaism  which  has  been  abolished  :  that,  on  the  con- 
trary, to  show  their  abhorrence  of  it,  no  Jew  is  allowed  to  enter 
any  part  of  the  whole  Russian  empire,  no,  not  though  he  should 
attempt  to  buy  the  permission  with  many  thousands  of  gold. 
When  the  child  is  now  grown,  and  come  to  years  of  discretion, 
so  as  to  be  able  to  give  proofs  of  his  Christian  faith,  it  is 
brought  to  the  Bishop  to  receive  the  Sacrament  of  the  Confirma- 
tion of  this  faith,  which  is  conferred  by  Chrism  applied  to  the 
forehead  in  the  form  of  a  cross.*  The  administration  of  this 
Sacrament  is  allowed  by  them  to  the  Bishop  alone.  This  we 
may  conjecture  to  be  the  case,  since  they  have  received  all  their 
religion  by  tradition  fiom  the  Apostles,  and  because  Imposition  of 
Hands,  whether  in  Confirmation  or  in  conferring  Holy  Orders, 
was  committed  to  the  Bishop  alone;  and  so  all  ancient  monu- 
ments attest,  and  ecclesiastical  custom  hath  observed.  As  for 
Matrimony,  if  we  are  to  say  something  of  it,  they  assured  us 
that  both  in  respect  of  consanguinity  and  of  affinity  they  are 
exceedingly  careful  and  strict ;  nor  can  the  prohibitions  of  the 
Church  ever  be  made  light  of.  So  far  do  they  carry  this,  that 
not  so  much  as  a  single  instance  can  be  found  of  any  parties 
having  contracted  marriage  even  in  the  fourth  degree  ;  nor  are 
dispensations  ever  given  ;  but  the  thing  is  absolutely  disallowed. 
For  this  having  once  been  ruled  by  the  Holy  Fathers,  tliey  never 
think  of  doing  any  thing  to  invalidate  their  sanctions.  And 
what  is  more,  they  observe  universally  for  that  sort  of  relation- 
ship which  is  contracted  by  godfathers  and  godmothers  at  Bap- 
tism and  Confirmation  a  respect  to  the  full  as  strict  as  that 
wliich  is  enjoined  by  the  decrees  of  the  Roman  Church,  If  in 
respect  of  such  matters  any  controversy  or  dispute  arise,  the 
case  is  decided  absolutely  by  the  sentence  of  the  Bishops,  with- 
out their  having,  nevertheless,  any  power  to  use  indulgence,  or  to 
tamper  in  any  way  with  the  constitutions  of  the  Church.  For 
adultery  they  have  perhaps  a  greater  abhorrence  than  we  have ; 
for  they   prosecute  that   crime  with   tlie   extremcist   execration. 

*  This  is  not  so.    The  Chrism  is  applied  by  tlie  Priest  or  Bishop  wiio  biijjtizts 
immediatvly  after  baptism. 


40  ASPECT    or    THE    RUSSIAN    CHUUCH     AT    THE 

Also  with  them  there  is  no  relaxation  of  the  law  that  so  long  as 
the  husband  lives  the  wife  can  never  marry  another.  It  is  only 
on  his  dying  that  she  is  set  free  from  the  law ;  otherwise  she 
must  live  inseparably  with  her  husband.  Holy  Orders  also  are 
among  them  conferred  on  Priests  with  certain  appropriate 
charges  and  ceremonies  of  their  own  :  nor  do  they  think  the 
power  of  the  keys  to  be  committed  to  them^  unless  in  imitation 
of  Christ  the  ordaining  Bishop  first  says  in  their  ears,  'Receive 
the  Holy  Ghost  :  whose  sins  ye  forgive  they  are  forgiven  unto 
them/  Such  is  the  form  prescribed  to  us  by  Christ  in  the 
Gospel,  by  which  every  one  whom  the  Bishop  calls  and  ordains 
to  be  a  Priest  receives  authority  either  to  loose  men  from  their 
sins,  or  to  leave  them  still  bound.  For  this  ministry  of  the 
Priesthood  is  used  by  the  Muscovites  in  the  matter  of  Penitence ; 
and  every  one  that  has  come  to  years  of  discretion,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  distinguish  between  good  and  evil,  right  and  wrong, 
leprosy  and  no  leprosy,  whensoever  he  is  conscious  that  he  has 
sinned,  and  is  contrite,  forthwith,  offering  duly  to  God  the 
sacrifice  of  a  troubled  spirit,  falls  down  at  the  feet  of  the  Priest, 
and  enumerates  to  him,  as  sitting  in  the  seat  of  God,  all  the 
sins  he  has  committed,  so  far  as  he  can  remember  them,  in 
order,  with  groans  or  tears  :  and  so  receives  afterwards  from 
him,  as  from  Christ's  vicar,  the  benefit  of  Absolution.  For 
doing  this  they  have  a  set  time,  being  required  by  the  rule  of 
the  Church  to  do  it  once  a  year,  about  the  season  of  Easter.  But 
the  more  religious  among  them  confess  oftener,  before  each  of  the 
chief  festivals.  If  any  one  do  it  not  even  at  the  required  time,  at 
Easter,  he  is  anathema  to  all  :  all  are  forbidden  to  converse  with 
him;  and  he  is  not  allowed  to  enter  the  Church.  Besides  going  to 
confession,  ihe  penitent,  that  he  may  be  a  worthy  partaker  of  so 
great  a  mystery  as  that  of  the  Lord's  Body  and  Blood,  must  for 
some  days  before  afflict  his  body  and  bring  his  flesh  under  subjec- 
tion, and  perform  other  worthy  fruits  of  penance  in  proof  of  his 
contrition.  In  agreement  with  these  usages  they  affirm  undoubt- 
ingly  that  the  Fast  of  Lent  was  enjoined  upon  us  by  Christ 
and  His  Apostles ;  at  which  season  nature  herself  teaches  us  that 
it  is  very  needful  to  blunt  the  assaults  of  the  old  Adam  by 
abstaining  from  flesh.  And  this  abstinence  they  observe  for 
seven  weeks  with  such  strictness,  that  none  of  them  during  the 


BEGINNING  OV    THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.        41 

whole  time  may  touch  either  flesh,  eggs.,  cheese,  or  butter. 
Besides  this  tliey  also  keep  a  fast  from  the  tenth  day  of  Novem- 
ber to  Christmas  Day :  and  yet  again  other  fasts  of  whole 
weeks  together,  as  in  June  before  the  Festival  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul,  and  a  fast  of  two  weeks  in  August  before  the  Feast  of  the 
Assumption  :  then  the  Fridays  in  every  week  throughout  the 
year,  and  the  Wednesdays.  Eight  of  those  who  belonged  to 
the  suite  of  His  Serene  Highness  had  made  a  vow  to  abstain 
from  flesh  meat  three  days  in  the  week,  namely,  on  Mondays, 
Wednesdays,  and  Fridays ;  and  the  interpreter  said  that  hitherto, 
by  God's  grace,  they  had  all  been  able  to  keep  it.  Such  is 
their  strictness  in  following  these  rules,  that  in  all  their  fasts 
without  exception  it  is  a  sin  for  any  one  to  eat  either  flesh  or 
eggs.  What  is  more,  they  told  us  that  many  of  their  country- 
men during  the  fasts  never  touch  anything  that  has  had  life,  not 
even  fish ;  while  others  on  fast-days  drink  neither  wine  nor  any 
other  made  drink.  At  the  hearing  of  which  relations  we  were 
so  moved  and  rapt  as  it  were  with  wonder,  as  to  seem  for  the 
moment  stupefied  ;  being  struck  with  the  thought  that  if  our 
Christians  are  compared  with  them  in  these  things  which  con- 
cern the  religion  of  Christ,  the  contrast  seemed  very  much  to 
our  disadvantage.  Nor  has  any  impression  ever  sunk  deeper 
into  our  minds  than  this,  that  we  who  are  so  very  confident 
about  the  tree  of  our  Faith,  turn  out  in  respect  of  fruit  to  be 
behind  them.  They  maintain  also  the  other  exercises  of  peni- 
tence, by  which  they  believe  God  is  reconciled  to  us.  Of  these 
the  chief  is  Prayer,  for  the  frequent  practice  of  which  it  is  not 
easy,  I  think,  to  find  others  like  them.  For  every  morning  be- 
fore dawn  they  all  prostrating  themselves,  at  their  length,  to 
the  ground,  make  long  prayers  to  God  :  and  at  all  times  of  the 
day,  almost  without  intermission,  they  have  Prayers :  among 
which  the  first  place  belongs  to  the  Lord's  Prayer;  then  the 
Blessed  Virgin  is  saluted  in  the  words  of  the  Archangel  Gabriel. 
Thev  also  recite  their  profession  of  the  Faith  in  that  Creed  which 
we  have  been  taught  by  the  ancients  to  regard  as  Apostolic. 
And  there  is  none  of  them  who  does  not  every  day  say  his 
Litany.  The  richer  sort,  who  can  aff'ord  to  go  to  a  great  ex- 
pense for  them,  and  can  read  in  the  Russian  language,  provide 
themselves  with  books  of  Prayers ;  but  those  Prayers  only  which 


43  ASPECT    OF    THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH    AT    THE 

are  received  by  the  Church  ;  of  which  kind  of  books  wc  saw  se- 
veral in  the  possession  of  the  Ambassadors.  Images  with  them 
are  not  treated  with  that  slight  regard,  or  rather  contempt,  which 
has  become  only  too  common  among  us,  contrary  to  all  godli- 
ness, through  the  factions  of  this  present  age ;  but  they  keep 
them  ever  before  their  eyes  as  remembrancers,  that  they  may 
never  forget  God's  benefits.  They  come  together  in  multitudes 
to  their  churches,  in  the  building  of  which  they  spare  no  ex- 
pense, and  which  they  call  '  Houses  of  Prayer ',  according  to 
the  Gospel :  they  adorn  them  with  various  images,  of  our  Sa- 
viour crucified,  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  the  Apostles,  and  certain 
other  Saints  :  and  this  they  maintain  that  they  are  warranted  in 
doing  by  the  example  of  the  primitive  Christians.  Nor  are  they 
so  easily  moved  by  the  fact  that  there  were  some  among  the 
Greeks  at  Constantinople  seven  hundred  years  ago  who  taught 
that  images  were  fit  only  for  idolaters,  and  that  it  was  unlawful 
for  them  to  be  found  among  true  Christians.  For  it  is  well  known 
that  all  who  persevered  obstinately  in  this  opinion  were  after- 
wards by  the  second  Council  of  Nice  condemned.  Nor  is  it  easy 
to  find  so  much  as  a  single  individual  here  and  there  who  by 
using  these  things  as  helps  and  remembrances  is  led  to  adore 
them.  For  there  is  none  of  them  but  knows  that  we  are  for- 
bidden by  God's  law  to  worship  stocks  and  stones ;  while  on  the 
other  hand  there  is  no  place  whatever  in  Scripture  which  shows 
it  unlawful  or  forbids  to  use  such  things  as  remembrancers.  As 
for  them,  even  in  their  convivial  entertainments  they  set  up  in 
view  such  remembrancers,  that  they  may  at  all  times  be  reminded 
of  God's  benefits,  and  be  moved  to  think  of  the  pattern  of  our 
whole  life,  that  is,  of  Christ.  As  for  their  Ceremonial,  they  have 
in  common  with  us  in  their  worship  the  use  of  candles ;  (as  their 
country  produces  abundance  of  wax,  and  they  think  that  God 
is  to  be  honoured  from  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  from  every 
thing  that  belongs  to  a  man's  substance)  :  and  these  candles  are 
lighted  more  especially  when  the  Priest  handles  our  Lord's 
Body  and  Blood,  the  Sacrament  of  our  entire  redemption ;  that 
is,  during  the  celebration  of  the  Mass.  But  as  for  those  Organs 
of  Pepin's  which  we  use,  (though  they  were  first  sent  to  us  from 
Greece,)  they  neither  go  to  any  expense  for  them,  nor  have  ever 
yet  so  much  as  admitted  them  into  their  churches. 


BEGINNING    OF    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  43 

"Nor is  this  the  least  noticeable  among  their  other  good  cus- 
toms, that  they  take  an  extraordinary  care  of  the  poor,  to  whom 
every  one,  according  to  his  means  and  his  devotion,  gives  alms  in 
money,  clothing,  meat,  and  drink  ;  receiving  and  entertaining 
strangers ;   and  doing  all  other  like  things  to  help  the   poorer 
members  of  Christ  in  this  life.     They  also  make  set  pilgrim- 
ages to  certain  recognized  holy  places ;  on  which  I  will  not  now 
enlarge.     Further,  when   any  man  among  them  is  sick  so  as  to 
seem  in  danger  of  death,  he  not  only  makes  a  particular  Confes- 
sion of  all  his  sins,  but  also,  to  testify  his  faith  in  Christ  who 
by  His  Testament  left  us  a  pledge  that  He  would  thus  forgive 
sin,  he  receives  the  provision  [or  viaticum]  of  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Eucharist.     Nor  does  he  by  any  means  neglect  to  desire  the 
Last  Unction.     Then  they  make  frequent  Prayers  for  the  sick  ; 
and  say  Litanies.     And  so,  at  length,  after  he  has  made  his  Con- 
fession, and  all  has  been  done  which  is  common  among  Chris- 
tians, the  Penitent  is  by  the  Priest  Absolved.     Thus  they  have 
Seven  Sacraments,  which   they  believe  truly  to  communicate  to 
every  one  who  devoutly  receives  them  those  graces  or  promises 
which  they  represent.     They  also  hold  the  Ten  Commandments 
by  the  same  authority  which  first  delivered  them  to  Moses,  as  of 
perpetual  obligation,  being  assured   by  His  own  word  that  He 
came  to  fulfil  the  Law,  and  by  no  means  to  destroy  it.     Indul- 
gences they  receive  from  their  Archbishop  and  Bishops ;  though 
in  this  matter  they  act  perhaps  more  scrupulously  than  we  do  : 
for  they  say  that  it  would  be  the  greatest  wickedness,  if  they 
were  to  set  to  sale  what  they  have  freely  received  to  give.     Nor 
may  any  Bishop  give  dispensations  to  eat  flesh.     Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  John,  Paul's  Epistles,  and  the  rest  which  we  receive,  to- 
gether with  the  Apocalypse,  are  reckoned  by  them  as  the  Cano- 
nical Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament.     And  concerning  the 
Canon  of  the  Old  Testament  they  agree  with  the  decrees  of  the 
Catholic  Church.     The  Roman  Pontiff  they  acknowledge  to  be 
Vicar  of  Christ  and  successor  of  Peter:  and  accordingly  the 
festivals  of  St.  Clement,  St.  Leo,  and  St.  Gregory,  are  celebrated 
by  the  Muscovites.     But  if  the  objection  were  made  that  they 
are  condemned  by  the  Roman  Pontiff  as  apostates  and  schisma- 
tics, they  said  that  they  trusted  themselves  to  the  judgment  of 
God  tlie  righteous  Judge.     Many  attempts,  no  doubt,  have  been 


44  ASPECT    OF    THE    RUSSIAN    CIIUUCH    AT    THE 

made  at  various  times  to  persuade  them  to  return  to  the  West, 
into  the  Church ;  [quo  ad  Occidentale  in  Ecclesiam  redirent .)  but 
what  causes  they  have  been  which,  unhappily  for  mankind,  have 
prevented  success,  I  had  perhaps  better  pass  over  in  silence, 
rather  than  by  naming  them  cause  scandal  to  weaker  brethren, 
and  draw  down  from  certain  quarters  odium  on  myself.  They 
differ  from  us  in  their  manner  of  Consecrating  the  Sacrament  a 
little,  and  in  their  manner  of  Breaking  the  Bread.  They  main- 
tain with  the  Greeks  that  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeds  from  the 
Father  only,  and  not  also  from  the  Son.  But  though  there  are 
among  the  Greeks  very  many  who  deny  Purgatory,  and  others 
who  attempt  to  prove  Purgatory  from  the  Scriptures,  they  say 
that  they  would  not  easily  endure  that  there  should  be  a  division 
on  this  account,  but  could  come  to  hold  firmly  the  same  doctrine 
with  the  Roman  Church.  Our  Masses  they  attend  most  will- 
ingly ;  and  say  that  nothing  gives  them  more  pain  than  to  find 
themselves  shunned  by  some  as  if  they  were  aliens  from  the 
faith,  whereas  they  observe  zealously  nearly  all  our  religious 
customs.  They  keep  the  four  great  Festivals  of  Christmas, 
Easter,  Pentecost,  and  the  Assumption.  They  greatly  honour 
the  Apostles;  and  pay  an  especial  respect  to  St.  Nicholas,  whom 
they  extol,  honour,  and  invoke.  They  keep  Palm-Sunday,  like 
the  Roman  Church,  with  the  blessing  of  palms,  olives,  and  other 
such-like  trees  or  branches.  And  this  custom  of  blessing 
creatures  they  defend  not  only  as  piously  received  by  the  Church, 
but  also  as  truly  grounded  on  holy  Scripture.  For  in  the  fifth 
and  nineteenth  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Numbers  we  may  see 
plainly  the  force  of  Exorcisms  ;  and  from  PauFs  Epistle  to  Ti- 
mothy this  truth,  that  the  creature  is  sanctified  by  the  word  and 
pi-ayer,  is  made  known  to  all.  Lastly,  it  is  with  them  a  matter 
of  very  common  experience  to  see  serpents  rendered  harmless,  to 
see  evil  spirits  cast  out,  to  see  persons  j)ossessed  freed  by  words 
of  prayer.  For  that  devils  should  be  cast  out  by  prayer  and 
fasting  Christ  has  left  us  His  word  written  in  the  Scripture, 
The  Sign  of  the  Cross  and  the  Image  of  our  Saviour  crucified 
they  carry  with  them  also  when  they  go  into  battle,  hoping  to 
conquer  by  that  by  which  Christ  conquered.  They  believe  that 
the  Saints  can  really  intercede  for  us  with  God  ;  and  wish  them  to 
do  so  unceasingly ;  and  think  that  their  prayers  obtain  a  readier 


BEGINNING    OF    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  45 

hearing.  Wherefore  also  they  invoke  them,  and  honour  them. 
Those,  moreover,  that  sin  pubUcly  they  prosecute  with  excom- 
munication ;  and  whoever  incurs  this  is  cast  out  from  the 
common  society  of  all  men,  and  from  Ecclesiastical  Communion. 
Only  one  thing  there  is  which  we  certainly  cannot  approve,  and 
which  is  most  contrary  to  our  customs,  namely,  that  they  give 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Eucharist  to  children  even  under  the  age 
of  three  years;  and  that  they  Consecrate  in  leavened  bread;  and 
administer  from  a  spoon  the  bread  mashed  in  the  wine  as  the 
Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  to  the  laity.  These  then  are  the 
customs  of  the  Muscovites;  this  is  that  religion  and  piety 
about  which  thou,  of  thy  laudable  diligence  respecting  sacred 
subjects,  0  most  Serene  Prince,  didst  lament  that  thou  wast  al- 
together ignorant :  And  therefore,  in  compliance  with  thy  com- 
mand, we  have  ascertained  by  questioning  thus  much  informa- 
tion respecting  those  people.  Given  at  Tubingen,  September  18, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1525." 


DISSERTATION  IV. 

DESTINIES      OF      THE      SLAVONIC       EMPIRE. PROBATION     AND 

FAILURIC     OF     JOHN      IV.      (tHE     FIRST     SOLEMNLY    CROWNED 
TSAR    OF    MUSCOVy)    IN    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 

Shortly  after  the  Roman  Empire  of  the  West  had  fallen  to  the 
Germans,  that  people  being  full  of  creative  force,  and  of  such 
gifts  and  qualities  as  dispose  man  to  pride  and  self-confidence, 
having  also  with  them  the  capital  of  the  world,  the  elder  Rome, 
and  the  chair  of  Peter,  they  thought  that  they  might  securely,  even 
without  a  General  Council,  do,  and  judge,  and  dictate  what  they 
pleased  as  in  the  name  of  the  Church ;  for  that  God  could  not 
fail  to  accomplish  His  own  promises,  nor  accomplish  His  pro- 
mises otherwise  than  through  them. 

But  God  at  that  time  showed  that  He  could  dispense  not  only 
with  the  German-Latin  Church  and  world,  which  was  ready  to 
call  itself  the  whole,  but  even  with  the  Greek  or  Eastern  Church 
and  Empire  also.  And  while  the  West  swerved  from  the  oecu- 
menical Creed,  and  subjected  itself,  in  point  of  form  at  least,  to 
the  anathemas  of  the  oecumenical  Councils,  and  the  East  was 
abandoned  to  the  sword  of  the  False  Prophet,  the  Almighty  Head 
of  the  Church  called  to  Himself  a  people  which  was  no  people, 
simple  and  barbarous,  neither  possessed  of  any  extraordinary 
powers  nor  boasting  itself  of  any,  yet  a  people  greater  or  to  be- 
come greater  than  both  Greeks  and  Romans  together,  with  a 
country  wild  and  thinly  inhabited  yet  larger  many  times  than  all 
the  Roman  Empire,  to  raise  up  as  it  were  from  the  dust  of  the 
earth  spiritual  children  to  Abraham,  to  vindicate  His  own  omni- 
potence, to  humble  all  who  should  presume  upon  His  Grace  and 
promises,  and  to  make  room  enough  in  the  wilderness  for  the 
Church  pursued  of  the  dragon  to  flee  into,  and  to  sojourn. 

Again,  as  in  the  West  the  Franks  and  Germans  had  renewed 


PROBATION   AND   FAILURE  OF  JOHN   IV.  OF  MOSCOW.  47 

in  a  sense  the  Latin-Roman  Empire  when  it  had  been  overrun 
and  mortally  wounded  and  tramj)led  down  by  barbarians,  so  it 
seemed  to  be  prepared  for  the  Slavonians  to  fulfil  a  similar  des- 
tiny with  regard  to  the  Grseco-lloman  Empire  of  the  East,  when 
it  should  have  been  trampled  down  and  destroyed  by  the  Saracens 
and  Turks  and  by  other  older  barbarians. 

And  especially,  as  the  three-thonged  scourge  of  Mahometan- 
ism,  the  scourge,  that  is,  which  consisted  of  the  Hagarenes  or 
Arabs,  the  Turks,  and  the  Tatars,  fell  chiefly  on  the  Grseco- 
Roman  Church  and  Empire,  this  seemed  also  to  be  in  store  for 
the  Slavonian  race,  to  serve  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty  as 
that  sword  of  His  vengeance  by  which  the  oppressor  who  had 
taken  the  sword  against  His  Church  and  against  His  Son's 
name  should  eventually  perish. 

But  the  Slavonians,  after  their  conversion  to  Christianity, 
being  guilty  as  men  of  great  sins,  were  chastised  by  great  judg- 
ments. Some  of  their  tribes  fell  under  the  yoke  of  the  Latins 
and  the  Germans,  and  lost  even  their  language :  some  exchanged 
their  original  "  Orthodoxy^'  for  the  Roman  Obedience  and  ritual ; 
some  fell  under  the  infidels,  and  even  became  in  part  infidels 
themselves.  In  the  greatest  of  all  their  tribes  and  countries, 
that  of  the  Russians,  two  centuries  of  family  feuds  and  blood- 
shed among  their  numerous  princes,  brother  warring  with 
brother,  and  uncle  with  nephew,  together  with  other  sins  of  the 
flesh,  were  punished  by  the  heavy  bondage  of  the  Mongols. 
Western  Russia  was  dismembered,  and  subjected  to  the  Hun- 
garians, the  Lithuanians,  and  the  Poles :  and  it  was  only  in  the 
fifteenth  century  that  Eastern  Russia,  concentrated  around  Mos- 
cow as  her  capital,  began  to  emerge  from  the  long  night  of  op- 
pression as  an  Orthodox  kingdom. 

The  grandson  of  Sophia  the  last  daughter  of  the  Palseologi, 
and  inheriting  from  his  father  a  sceptre  now  independent,  John 
IV.,  the  first  solemnly  crowned  Tsar  or  Emperor  of  Muscovy, 
was  placed  upon  his  trial  by  Providence;  and,  like  Saul  the  first 
king  of  Israel,  had  the  option  ofi^ered  to  him  of  either  fulfilling 
the  most  high  and  glorious  mission  in  obedience  to  the  will  of 
God,  and  in  execution  of  the  destinies  of  His  people,  or,  if  he 
failed,  of  becoming  a  monster  and  a  by-word  of  warning  and 
horror  to  all  posterity. 


48  PROHiVTION   AND   FAILURE  OF  JOHN   IV.  OF  MOSCOW 

Recalled  to  repentance  in  bis  youth  from  those  early  sins  into 
which  evil  guardians  had  led  him  by  the  burning  of  his  capital  and 
by  the  seasonable  exhortations  of  a  Priest  named  Silvester,  John 
made  his  repentance  as  public  as  had  been  his  crimes.  He  sur- 
rounded himself  with  wise  and  able  and  virtuous  counsellors; 
assembled  a  Synod  for  the  decision  of  Ecclesiastical  ques- 
tions; collected  and  promulgated  a  Code  of  civil  laws;  improved 
the  administration  of  justice;  organized  the  military  forces  of  his 
empire;  and  taking  the  field  in  a  just  war  against  the  Tatars  of 
Kazan  and  Astrachan,  subdued  two  infidel  kingdoms.  One  only, 
and  that  reduced  to  great  weakness  and  promising  an  easy  con- 
quest, remained,  the  kingdom  of  the  Crimea. 

The  fame  of  these  conquests  resounded  over  all  Europe  ;  and 
the  effect  produced  was  as  if  a  cloud  which  had  before  enveloped 
Russia  had  suddenly  cloven  asunder,  and  disclosed  to  the  half 
incredulous  eyes  of  the  Westerns,  at  the  moment  of  their  greatest 
fear  and  need,  a  young  Christian  hero  at  the  head  of  a  great 
empire,  with  an  army  of  three  hundred  thousand  men,  to  be  the 
vanguard  and  support  of  Christendom. 

And  if  John  had  done  what  his  counsellors  told  him  was  his 
duty,  if  he  had  then  reduced  the  Crimea,  he  would  have  had  the 
prospect  of  the  undisputed  succession  to  the  crowns  of  Poland 
and  Lithuania  being  secured  to  him  :  and  the  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many and  the  Pope  were  about  to  intreat  him  to  head  all  Europe 
against  the  Turks,  adding,  that  he  would  have  a  natural  right  to 
whatever  could  he  recovered  of  the  Eastern  Emjnre,  and  that  none 
of  the  Western  Powers  would  grudge  it  him.  This  was  his 
mission,  and  the  mission  of  his  country.  Chastised  and 
humbled  for  her  sins  during  three  centuries  under  the  yoke  of 
the  Tatars,  Russia  had  confessed  her  sins,  and  the  justice  of 
their  chastisement,  and  had  prayed  and  waited  for  forgiveness 
and  deliverance :  and  at  length  God  had  given  her  her  deliver- 
ance :  and  He  offered  her  at  the  same  time  much  more ;  exalta- 
tion, and  dominion,  and  victory,  and  glory,  for  the  defence  of 
Christianity,  the  revival  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  and  the  possible 
healing  even  of  the  schisms  of  the  Churches.  Unhappily  John 
failed  of  his  mission. 

The  last  act  in  which  he  followed  the  advice  of  Silvester  and 
Adasheff,  his  wise  and  religious  counsellors   and  true  friends, 


IN    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  49 

that  act  which  revealed  a  glimpse  of  the  whole  vista  of  his  future 
greatness  and  glory,  if  he  had  done  his  duty,  but  which  was  in 
fact  to  be  the  turning  point  and  commencement  of  his  downward 
career,  has  much  of  dramatic  interest.  Seeing  what  had  been 
the  fate  of  Kazan  and  Astrachan,  and  knowing  that  his  own 
turn  ought  to  come  next,  conscious  too  of  an  extraordinary 
weakness  and  inability  to  resist  at  that  time,  the  Khan  of 
the  Crimea,  who  had  before  been  the  ally  of  Lithuania  and 
Poland  and  the  enemy  of  Russia,  collected  all  his  forces,  made  a 
sudden  inroad  into  the  country  of  his  unsuspecting  allies,  laid  it 
waste  with  fire  and  sword,  and  returned  to  his  own  dominions 
laden  with  booty,  and  dragging  after  him  a  hundred  thousand 
Christian  captives  to  slavery  or  apostasy.  He  then  sent  an 
embassy  with  presents  from  his  booty  to  the  Tsar  of  Moscow, 
giving  him  to  understand  that  remembering  a  former  alliance 
which  had  subsisted  between  John's  grandfather  and  his  own 
ancestor,  and  wishing  to  renew  it,  he  had  sacrificed  to  that  wish 
his  former  alliance  with  the  enemies  of  Russia,  the  Poles  and 
Lithuanians.  But  the  expectation  of  the  infidel  was  defeated. 
Acting  upon  the  advice  of  those  men  to  whom  all  his  former 
glory  was  owing,  John  refused  to  receive  the  ambassadors  of  the 
Khan,  or  to  defile  himself  with  their  presents  ;  but  sent  a  special 
embassy  of  his  own  into  Poland  with  expressions  of  sympathy 
for  the  sufferings  that  had  been  caused  by  the  late  Tatar  inva- 
sion, and  with  an  announcement  that  forgetting  the  enmity 
which  had  to  that  time  existed  between  them  and  Russia,  and 
thinking  only  of  their  common  Christianity,  he  was  ready  to 
assist  them  with  the  whole  forces  of  his  empire.  The  transport 
of  enthusiasm  produced  among  the  Poles  and  Lithuanians  by 
this  unexpected  and  scarce  credible  generosity  knew  no  bounds. 
John's  ambassadors  were  received  everywhere  with  the  warmest 
demonstrations  of  gratitude  ;  and  an  understanding  was  entered 
into  that  upon  the  death  of  Sigismund  (who  was  old,  and  had  no 
heir,)  John  should  succeed  by  common  consent  to  the  united 
Crowns  of  the  Grand  Duchy  and  the  Kingdom. 

But  in  the  mean  time,  apart  from  his  public  probation  as  a 
Sovereign,  John  had  been  subjected  to  another  personal  and 
moral  probation  as  a  man :  and  he  had  now  already  passed  the 
turning  point  of  his  life  and  character.     From  a  natural  and 

E 


50       PROBATION     yVND    FAILUHE    OF    JOHN    IV.    OF    MOSCOW 

almost  venial  cause  (in  consequence  of  their  disinclination  to 
swear  allegiance  to  his  infant  son  when  bis  own  life  was  des- 
paired of,  and  preferring  the  old  Russian  order  of  succession  by 
which  a  minority  would  have  been  avoided,)  John  had  allowed 
himself  to  harbour  a  secret  grudge  and  jealousy  against  his 
counsellors  Silvester  and  AdashefF.  It  is  impossible  not  to  sym- 
pathize in  some  degree  with  his  feelings,  and  those  of  his  Tsaritsa. 
For  a  man  of  his  temperament  it  must  have  been  a  sore  trial : 
even  as  it  was  a  sore  trial  for  Saul  of  old,  being  a  king,  and 
having  sons  of  his  own  worthy  of  a  crown,  to  see  before  him 
and  at  his  table  the  man  who  had  engrossed  that  glory  which 
he  considered  as  his  own,  and  who  was  marked  by  prophecy  to 
supplant  his  family  in  the  kingdom.  Having  once  harboured  and 
dwelt  upon  this  sinful  malice,  John  presently  began  to  listen  to 
the  whisperings  of  profligate  flatterers  who  could  not  endure 
the  severity  of  those  great  and  good  men  by  whom  he  was  still 
directed.  "  They  engrossed,"  it  was  said,  "  the  glory  which 
should  have  been  the  Tsar's  :  they  insisted  on  his  following 
their  plans,  that  they  might  still  keep  both  the  power  and  the 
credit  to  themselves :  whereas  John's  own  genius  was  superior, 
and  the  plans  of  his  own  devising  preferable  to  theirs."  So  he 
listened  again  to  the  tempter,  and  added  to  his  former  secret 
and  suppressed  illwill  a  political  jealousy,  and  a  vain -glorious 
desire  to  do  great  things  independently  of  Silvester  and  Ada- 
sheff  and  against  their  counsels.  At  this  point  the  influence  of 
early  habits  was  allowed  to  return  upon  him  :  his  lusts  and 
passions  responded  to  the  sentiment  of  his  flatterers,  that  "  those 
men  had  put  a  yoke  and  bridle  upon  him  too  hard  to  be  borne." 
So  he  "began  to  eat  and  to  drink,"  and  to  do  worse  ;  and  relapsed 
into  the  sins  of  which  he  had  repented.  Hence  it  was  that  he 
failed  also  of  his  public  mission  and  probation  as  a  Sovereign. 

For  as  Saul  spared  the  Amalekites,  and  forfeited  the  kingdom 
for  ever,  so  John  spared  the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea,  and  lost  all 
that  was  offered  to  him  in  consequence.  Anticipating  the 
worldly  schemes  of  Peter  I.,  desiring  to  open  Russia  to  the 
West,  and  to  obtain  a  port  on  the  Baltic,  and  thinking  these 
objects  grander  and  more  important  than  the  reduction  of  the 
Crimea,  which  seemed  within  his  grasp  at  any  time,  John  went 
to  war  on  his  north-western   frontier  with  Christians,  with  the 


IN    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  51 

Order  of  the  Livonian  Knights,  and  with  the  Swedes :  and  this 
drew  after  it  a  league  neither  honourable  nor  sincere  with  the 
Tatars,  a  breach  with  Poland,  and  a  long  and  obstinate  war, 
which  ended  in  the  entire  ruin  of  John's  political  fortunes,  and 
personal  character.  He  was  carried  on  from  one  wickedness  to 
another,  each  step  in  evil  making  the  next  more  natural  or  ine- 
vitable, and  a  lively  imagination  bordering  almost  on  insanity 
with  wounded  vanity  and  obstinacy  and  great  suspiciousness 
hurrying  him  along,  till  he  became  one  of  the  greatest  monsters 
of  tyranny,  cruelty,  and  superstitious  hypocrisy  that  the  world 
had  ever  seen,  so  that  posterity  has  surnamed  him  "  The  Terri- 
ble." All  his  political  prospects  were  gradually  clouded.  The 
Tatars  of  the  Crimea  recovered  themselves,  made  destructive  in- 
roads into  Russia,  and  even  burned  Moscow.  John  gave  up 
Christian  proselytes  to  be  tortured  and  put  to  death,  or  to  be 
compelled  to  apostasy,  by  the  infidels.  For  the  sake  of  his  war 
in  the  North,  he  basely  demeaned  himself,  sending  presents, 
kissing  the  dust,  and  doing  personal  homage  to  the  Tatar  Khan. 
Instead  of  succeeding  peaceably  to  the  throne  of  Poland,  he 
saw  an  enemy  elected  to  it  under  the  nomination  and  protection 
of  the  Turks,  and  that  enemy  a  great  military  commander, 
Batori,  with  whom  he  was  to  be  engaged  in  long  and  unsuccess- 
ful war.  He  killed  his  eldest  son,  who  should  have  been  his 
heir,  with  his  own  hand  in  a  transport  of  mad  jealousy,  after 
having  first  educated  him  to  imitate  his  own  wickedness.  He 
exhibited  himself,  after  all  the  glory  of  his  early  reign,  in  the 
disgraceful  light  not  only  of  an  unsuccessful  ruler,  but  of  a 
personal  coward;  and  lastly,  concluded  at  the  close  of  his 
wretched  life  an  ignominious  peace  through  the  solicited  media- 
tion of  a  Papal  envoy,  who  is  said  to  have  cheated  him  into 
yielding  more  than  was  really  necessary  even  at  the  last. 

Thus,  by  the  failure  of  this  Russian  Saul,  the  mission  and 
destiny  of  his  country  was  suspended.  The  opportunity  offered 
in  the  sixteenth  century  was  lost.  Instead  of  exhibiting  a  ca- 
reer of  public  glory  and  of  benefits  to  all  Christendom,  the  long 
and  appalling  tragedy  of  John's  life  closed  (a.d.  1582.)  only  to 
be  succeeded  by  all  the  storms  of  Divine  anger  bursting  upon 
his  posterity  and  his  kingdom.  After  the  reign  of  his  imbecile 
son  Theodore  (a.d,  1598.)  the  whole  Moscow  Family  of  the  line 

E  2 


5.2       PROBATION    AND    FAILURE    OF    JOHN    IV.    OF    MOSCOW 

of  Riiric  (which  liad  reigned  in  Russia  ever  since  it  had  become  a 
State,)  was  extinct.  It  had  been  extinguished  by  the  successful 
cunning  of  a  traitor  who  liad  nourished  at  John's  right  hand, 
and  had  cheated  from  first  to  last  that  suspicious  tyrant  who 
murdered  for  no  cause  so  many  other  good  and  brave  and  faith- 
ful men.  Thus  the  crimes  to  be  avenged  by  the  supreme  Avenger 
Vv'ere  doubled.  To  the  sins  of  John  was  added  the  sin  of  Godou- 
nofF.  Civil  feuds  and  wars  of  innumerable  Pretenders  tore  the 
country  from  one  end  to  the  other.  The  Latin  Poles  besieged, 
occupied,  and  partly  burned  Moscow;  the  Swedes  seized  the  nor- 
thern provinces ;  and  Russia  seemed  in  danger  of  losing  both 
her  religious  and  her  political  existence. 

At  length  the  scene  was  changed,  and  God  in  wrath  remem- 
bered mercy.  The  Clergy  came  forward  to  save  their  country  : 
some  brave  and  patriotic  nobles  responded  to  their  call,  and  se- 
conded their  efforts.  The  Poles  were  expelled  from  the  Kremlin  : 
and  around  the  walls  of  the  Trinity  Lavra  of  St.  Sergius  the 
clouds  which  had  so  long  lowered  over  Muscovy  broke,  and  the 
tempest  dispersed,  (a.  d.  1612.) 

A  touching  and  striking  contrast  was  then  presented  to  the 
past  horrors.  We  see  the  unanimous  election  of  a  new  Tsar, 
the  son  of  a  Boyar-prelate  who  had  suffered  much  for  his  coun- 
try and  was  still  a  prisoner  in  Poland,  and  who  had  been  inca- 
pacitated for  secular  rule  by  former  jealousies  :  we  see  the  Heads 
of  the  Clergy  and  of  the  Nobility,  going  to  the  Convent  of  their 
refuge,  and  entreating  an  alarmed  and  unwilling  mother  in  the 
name  of  God  and  their  country  to  give  uj)  her  son,  a  young  and 
innocent  boy,  to  the  perils  of  a  throne  :  then  a  just  and  peaceful 
reign :  peace  concluded  with  great  but  necessary  sacrifices  on  all 
sides :  a  dutiful  and  religious  son,  solemnly  crowned  and 
anointed,  ruling  well  under  the  advice  of  a  Patriarch  who  was 
at  once  his  natural  and  his  spiritual  father  :  a  new  Dynasty 
founded:  Russia  taking  breath  and  recovering  herself;  and 
though  not  for  many  years  to  be  again  in  the  same  relative  po- 
sition to  Christendom  as  that  which  she  might  have  occupied  in 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  nor  to  have  again  offered 
to  her  the  mission  and  opportunity  she  then  lost,  yet  be- 
coming yearly  more  and  more  powerful,  till  in  the  reign  of 
Alexis  Michaelovich,  the  father  of  Peter  I.,  her  new  Dynasty, 


IN    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  53 

her  Clergy,  and  her  Nobility,  all  those  powers  in  fact  which  had 
founded  the  existing  order  of  things,  were  once  more  to  be  put 
on  their  trial,  a  trial  of  a  very  different  nature  froni  that  of 
John  IV.;  were  once  more  to  have  good  and  evil  set  before  them  ; 
and  either  by  choosing  good  to  merit  the  establishment  of  a  sure 
house  to  the  Romanoffs  and  a  restoration  of  her  mission  and 
opportunities  to  Russia,  or  by  choosing  evil  to  draw  down  upon 
themselves  fresh  calamities  and  punishments,  punishments  not 
so  much  of  an  external  as  of  an  internal  kind ;  a  series  of  do- 
mestic vices  and  tragedies ;  the  extinction  of  the  Dynasty  which 
began  with  such  blessed  promise ;  the  degradation  and  ruin  of 
the  two  Orders  of  the  Nobility  and  the  Clergy  ;  the  ultimate  in- 
troduction of  Western  immorality,  infidelity,  and  perhaps  anar- 
chy ;  or,  at  any  rate,  the  development  of  a  new  infidel  Babylon 
instead  of  a  mighty  orthodox  Empire.  What  this  new  trial  was 
shall  be  explained  in  the  next  following  Section. 


DISSERTATION  V. 

DESTINIES  OF  THE  SLAVONIC  EMPIRE. —  PROBATION  AND 
FAILURE  OF  THE  TSAR  ALEXIS  MICHAELOVICH,  WITH  THE 
NOBILITY  AND  HIERARCHY  OF  RUSSIA,  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

By  the  munificence  of  former  times,  especially  during  the  Tatar 
domination,  the  Russian  Bishops  and  Monasteries  had,  before 
the  seventeenth  century,  become  possessed  of  vast  domains  in 
land ;  and  over  all  such  domains  they  exercised  a  separate 
jurisdiction,  according  to  their  own  Ecclesiastical  Code,  or  Nomo- 
canun,  which  differed  in  some  respects  from  the  civil  law  of  Russia. 
Such  wealth,  joined  with  such  a  privilege,  and  with  the  political 
power  accompanying  it,  tended  naturally  to  excite  a  jealousy 
against  the  Hierarchy  in  the  higher  orders  of  the  laity  after  Mus- 
covy had  become  an  independent  State.  The  Tsars  themselves 
indeed,  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  and  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth centuries,  do  not  seem  to  have  felt,  nor  had  they  certainly 
any  occasion  to  feel  such  jealousy.  For,  however  great  might 
be  the  influence  of  the  Hierarchy,  it  had  ahvays  been  used  in  aid, 
not  in  prejudice,  of  the  Grand  Princes.  The  unity  of  the  Empire 
had  been  gradually  formed  and  held  together  by  that  influence 
under  the  Tatar  yoke:  its  peace  and  security  had  often  been 
promoted  or  restored,  never  endangered  or  disturbed,  by  the 
interference  of  the  Metropolitans  and  Patriarchs :  and  their  in- 
dei)endent  and  clear-sighted  patriotism  offered  the  best  possible 
protection  to  the  interests  of  the  reigning  Family,  and  of  public 
order,  when  the  Sovereign  chanced  to  be  of  weak  character,  or  a 
minor.  But  individuals  and  factions  of  the  Nobility,  and  perhaps 
the  Nobility  as  a  class,  w^re  jealous  of  a  power,  at  once  spiritual 
and  political,  which  by  its  worldly  equality  affronted  their  pride, 
and  by  its  severe  principles  and  laws  thwarted  their  passions. 


DEPOSITION    OF    THE    PATRIARCH    NICON.  65 

And,  setting  aside  tliis  natural  but  evil  jealousy,  there  were 
oonie  points  in  the  privileges  of  the  Clergy  which  an  enlightened 
and  religious  Sovereign  and  legislator  might  fairly  have  required 
them  to  surrender  for  the  common  good.  To  have  two  different 
and  independent  codes  of  law  in  force  at  the  same  time  over  the 
whole  extent  of  the  Empire  (for  the  lands  of  the  Church  were 
scattered  everywhere,  and  did  not  lie  together  in  one  mass,)  could 
not  but  be  inconvenient,  and  tending  to  become  more  and  more 
inconvenient  in  proportion  as  population  should  thicken,  and 
civilization  increase.  And  this  the  more,  as  there  was  no  third 
supreme  jurisdiction,  which  could  receive  appeals  in  mixed  or 
doubtful  cases,  and  arbitrate  between  the  Civil  and  the  Ecclesi- 
astical Courts. 

In  the  reigns  of  John  III.  and  John  IV.,  not  from  any  per- 
sonal fear  or  jealousy  of  the  Hierarchy  in  those  Sovereigns,  but 
from  mere  political  covetousness,  and  perhaps  from  a  leaning  to 
the  Judaizing  heresy  (a  subtle  but  premature  anticipation  of 
modern  materialism,)  in  the  former  case,  and  from  casual  neces- 
sities in  the  latter,  the  first  signs  were  shown  of  that  disposition 
to  curtail  the  wealth  of  the  Bishops  and  Monasteries  which  was  to 
reappear  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  which  was  to  be  carried 
out  to  its  extreme  results  by  the  acts  of  Peter  I.,  Peter  III.,  and 
Catherine  II.  in  the  eighteenth. 

But  it  was  during  the  minority  of  Alexis  Michaelovich,  before 
the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  (a.d.  1648.)  that  the  Boy- 
ars  of  the  Council,  his  relatives  and  guardians,  in  compiling  a  new 
Code  of  civil  laws,  added  to  it  not  only  an  Act  of  mortmain  dis- 
qualifying the  Bishops  and  Monasteries  from  buying  or  receiving- 
fresh  landed  property  for  the  future,  but  also  an  enactment  for  a 
general  State  survey  of  all  Church  lands,  with  a  view  to  the  ab- 
straction of  such  properties  as  had  been  acquired  since  a  certain 
date,  and  in  contravention  of  the  letter  of  a  mortmain  edict  of  a 
former  reign.  For  the  Tsars  had  by  no  means  held  themselves  to 
be  precluded  from  giving,  or  the  Bishops  and  Monasteries  from  re- 
ceiving from  them,  or  with  their  express  permission, fresh  benefac- 
tions :  and  many  such  benefactions  had  in  fact  been  made,  and 
permission  to  acquire  and  hold  fresh  lands  had  been  so  accorded. 

By  the  same  new  Code  the  Boyars,  instead  of  merely  requiring 
the  Clergy  to  surrender  then*  privilege  of  a  separate  jurisdiction 


56  DEPOSITION    OF    TUli    PATRIARCU    NICON 

over  their  own  tenants  in  purely  civil  matters,  and  over  all  ia 
certain  other  mixed  matters,  (for  this  might  reasonably  have  been 
made  a  matter  of  negociation,  or  might  have  been  required  from 
a  synod  of  the  Clergy,)  leaving  the  other  Church  Courts  and 
the  superior  Court  of  the  Patriarch  to  continue  as  they  stood, 
erected  a  supreme  lay  Court  to  over-ride  them  all,  and  to  deter- 
mine, further,  all  questions  relating  to  the  properties  of  the 
Church ;  which,  under  pretext  of  the  mortmain  Statutes,  were 
to  be  placed  under  the  inspection  and  control  of  civil  officers 
nominated  by  the  Crown. 

These  enactments  of  the  Code  of  Alexis  Michaelovich  compiled 
during  his  minority  by  the  Boyars,  and  ratified  by  him  in  his 
early  youth  under  their  influence,  became  shortly  afterwards 
the  occasion  of  a  great  struggle  between  the  worse  part  of  the 
Nobility  and  the  better  part  of  the  Hierarchy ;  a  struggle  which 
forms  the  crisis  of  the  reign  of  Alexis,  and  the  key  to  the  subse- 
quent history  of  Russia  down  to  the  present  day. 

There  arose  at  that  time  in  Hussia  a  great  Patriarch,  by  name 
Nicon,  who  embodied  in  his  personal  character  and  life,  in  his 
station,  and  other  incidental  advantages,  all  those  qualities  which 
were  most  calculated  to  promote  the  prosperity  and  glory  of  the 
Church  and  of  his  country,  and  to  concentrate  upon  him  and 
upon  the  Hierarchy  the  envy  and  malice  of  the  wicked. 

Possessed  not  only  of  the  respect  and  confidence  but  of  the 
tender  friendship  of  his  Sovereign,  a  Sovereign  of  an  affectionate 
and  religious  disposition,  Nicon  in  first  accepting  the  Episcopal 
office  made  it  a  condition  with  Alexis  that  those  laws  which  had 
been  made  against  the  rights  of  the  Church  during  his  minority 
should  not  be  enforced  in  his  diocese  of  Novogorod :  and  Alexis 
acceded  to  the  stipulation. 

Seeing  the  greatness  and  the  difficulty  of  the  struggle  which 
probably  lay  before  him,  Nicon,  while  yet  only  Metropolitan  of 
Novogorod,  suggested,  and  himself  superintended  in  the  Tsar's 
name,  the  Translation  of  the  Relics  of  St.  Philip,  a  former  Metro- 
politan of  Moscow,  to  the  Cathedral  of  the  Assumption  in  that 
capital.  St.  Philip  had  been  by  birth  of  one  of  the  chief  fami- 
lies of  the  Boyars ;  and  the  great  merit  of  his  Primacy  had  been 
this,  that  he  had  dauntlessly  rebuked  John  the  Terrible  for  his 
cruelties,  and  for  the  misgovernmcnt  of  his  dominions,  and  had 


IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  57 

received  from  that  tyrant  in  cousequcDce  the  crown  of  martyr- 
dom. Few  perhaps  or  none  at  the  time  discerned  any  pecuHar 
significancy  in  this  act  of  the  Translation  of  his  llehcs,  though  all 
understood  that  it  wasjab-Qmage  rendered  by  the  nation  and  the 
Church,  by  the  Clergy,  the  Boyars,  and  the  Tsar  himself,  to  that 
virtue  in  Hierarchs  which  is  ready  to  resist  and  reprove  worldly 
violence,  and  to  suffer  for  truth  and  righteousness'  sake.  And 
if  any  had  seen  what  Nicon  really  meant  by  the  suggestion,  or 
that  he  anticipated  that  the  next  Patriarch  of  Moscow  ought  to 
be  prepared  to  follow  in  the  steps  of  Philip,  and  to  earn  a  place 
at  his  feet,  they  would  probably  have  thought  such  an  anticipation 
most  ill-timed  and  absurd.  For  what  resemblance  could  any  man 
discover  between  the  tender-hearted  and  affectionate  and  merciful 
Alexis,  and  the  half-insane  monster  who  murdered  Philip  ?  or 
between  any  party  of  the  Boyars  then  living  and  the  terrible 
Oprichina  ?     Yet  so  it  was. 

Scarcely  was  the  Translation  of  St.  Philip's  Relics  completed, 
and  the  virtue  of  firmly  resisting  the  Temporal  Power  in  certain 
cases  declared  to  be  one  of  the  four  corner  foundations  of  the 
Russian  Church,  when  the  Patriarchal  throne  became  vacant,  and 
that  which  Nicon  had  foreseen  occurred.  And  then,  when  his 
Sovereign  and  his  friend  (and  with  him  all  the  Court,)  were  in- 
viting, and  pressing,  and  forcing  him  to  accept  the  Primacy,  he 
evinced  (out  of  place  and  unintelligible  as  it  may  have  appeared,) 
exactly  the  same  reluctance  and  apprehension  as  his  predecessor 
St.  Philip  had  evinced,  when  singled  out  by  John  the  Terrible  to 
become  Metropolitan.  And,  like  Philip,  he  consented  to  their 
supplications  only  on  certain  conditions,  when  the  Tsar  and  his 
nobles  had  solemnly  vowed  to  him  in  the  church  that,  if  he 
would  become  their  Patriarch,  they  would  conscientiously  obey 
him  in  Ecclesiastical  matters  as  their  spiritual  Father. 

Thus  Nicon  became  Patriarch  (a.d.  1653) ;  and,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  caused  those  laws  which  had  before  been  held  suspended 
for  him  only  in  the  single  diocese  of  Novogorod  to  become  inope- 
rative throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  Russian  Church  and  Em- 
pire. Still  he  knew  that  this  mere  suspension  of  their  execution 
could  not  last;  and  that  before  long  they  must  either  be  carried 
into  execution, or  annulled.  To  annul  them,embodied  as  they  were  i 
ui  the  Code,  was  no  easy  matter  :  it  implied  a  previous  struggle, 


58  DEPOSITION     OF    THE    PATRIARCH     NICON 

and  the  complete  overthrow  of  those  influences  which  had  placed 
them  there.  And  this  it  was  to  which  Nicon  looked  forward. 
For  this  he  had  been  making  preparation  when  he  procured  the 
Translation  of  the  Relics  of  St.  Philip,  and  when  he  bound  the 
Tsar  and  the  Boyars  by  a  solemn  oath  to  obey  him  as  their 
spiritual  Father. 

The  obnoxious  laws  then  were  suspended,  and  held  in  abey- 
ance J  and  Nicon,  seated  on  the  Patriarchal  throne,  continued 
to  do  for  all  Russia  what  he  had  before  done  only  for  the  one 
diocese  of  Novogorod.  He  relieved  the  poor;  righted  the 
oppressed;  encouraged  virtue  and  learning;  enforced  discipline, 
especially  among  the  Clergy,  examining  personally  candidates 
for  Ordination,  and  summarily  punishing  delinquent  Clerks :  he 
corrected  abuses  in  the  manner  of  performing  Divine  Service ; 
introduced  a  new  and  improved  mode  of  Church  singing ;  held 
a  Council  for  the  correction  and  printing  of  the  Church  Books ; 
and  generally  promoted  all  necessary  and  useful  reforms.  At  the 
same  time  he  taught  diligently  himself  the  Word  of  God,  the  style 
both  of  his  preaching  and  of  his  ordinary  discourse  being  re- 
markable for  the  constant  references  he  made  in  them  to  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  references  not  superficial  and  conventional 
but  natural  and  practical,  full  of  rich  instruction  and  holy 
seriousness,  and  having  a  peculiar  pointedness  of  application. 
By  these  means  he  attracted  towards  himself  the  deepest  personal 
attachment  of  religious  minds,  (and  not  least  that  of  his  Sove- 
reign,) but  also  the  jealousy  and  hatred  of  all  the  more  ignorant, 
superstitious,  and  vicious  among  the  Hierarchy  and  the  lower 
Clergy,  who  found  in  his  correction  of  the  Church  Books  a 
powerful  handle  for  spreading  disaffection  towards  him  among 
such  of  the  people  also  as  were  like  themselves,  ignorant,  un- 
spiritual,  and  superstitious. 

The  accession  of  unparalleled  political  influence  and  splen- 
dour to  such  a  character  and  position  brought  upon  the  Patriarch 
from  a  large  faction  of  the  Boyars  a  personal  hatred  far  more 
intense  than  would  have  otherwise  been  excited  either  by  his 
promotion  of  Ecclesiastical  reforms,  or  even  by  his  defence  of 
Ecclesiastical  rights.  The  Tsar,  when  absent  from  his  Capital 
on  occasion  of  the  Polish  war,  entrusted  the  virtual  Regency  to 
the  Patriarch  above  all  the  Boyars  of  the  Council,  and  especially 


IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 


59 


above  those  who  stood  nearest  to  the  throue  as  the  relatives  of 
his  consort  and  his  mother,  bad  men,  to  whose  influence  Nicon, 
simply  and  faithfully  discharging  his  trust,  would  yield  nothing. 
Also,  on  occasion  of  the  great  plague,  the  Tsar  committed  the 
personal  care  of  his  wife  and  family  to  the  Patriarch,  as  to  his 
dearest  and  most  faithful  friend;  and  on  happily  receiving 
again  this  trust,  bestowed  on  him  affectionately  and  gratefully, 
but  foolishly,  the  title  of  Great  Highness,  {Veliki  Hossonddr,) 
which  had  been  the  style  of  his  own  grandfather  the  Patriarch 
Philaret  Niketich,  a  title  which  Nicon  disclaimed  as  unsuitable, 
and  forbad  his  clerH  ever  to  give  it  to  him,  but  which,  being 
used  and  given  by  the  Tsar  himself,  and  so  also  by  others  of 
the  Court,  was  naturally  most  ofi^ensive  to  Nicon's  enemies 
among  the  chief  Boyars,  and  became  afterwards,  however  un- 
justly and  absurdly,  one  of  their  charges  against  him.  In  the 
exercise  of  his  regency  Nicon  had  also  the  fortune  of  obtaining 
or  receiving  the  most  important  and  brilliant  accession  to  the 
Empire.  It  was  to  him  and  through  him  that  the  proposition 
was  made  which  brought  the  whole  of  Little  Russia  with  the 
ancient  capital  of  Kieff  and  the  Kazak  forces  of  the  Oukraine 
under  the  Muscovite  sceptre. 

Enough  has  now  been  stated  to  make  it  very  intelligible  that 
a  league  should  have  been  formed  between  a  large  party  of 
the  chief  Boyars,  including  the  Tsar's  own  nearest  relatives,  and 
the  obscurantist  and  retrograde  party  among  the  Hierarchy  to 
bring  about  the  downfall  of  Nicon.  And  though,  as  long  as 
Alexis  remained  in  the  same  mind,  they  could  do  nothing  but 
show  their  spite  by  words  and  by  calumnies,  yet  the  time  came 
at  length  when  they  found  they  could  safely  demand  that  the 
suspended  provisions  of  the  civil  Code  should  be  carried  into 
execution.     And  the  Tsar  gave  his  consent. 

What  may  have  originally  led  to  this  change  in  the  Tsar's 
determination  it  is  now  difficult,  and  perhaps  impossible,  to 
discover.  The  personal  calumnies  of  Nicon's  enemies  he  must 
have  estimated  at  their  just  value  :  indeed  the  evident  continu- 
ance of  his  own  personal  affection  and  respect  for  the  Patriarch 
to  the  end  shows  that  he  did  so.  Disappointment  at  the  want 
of  success  of  the  Swedish  war  (which  Nicon  had  advised,)  could 
scarcely  alone  have  occasioned  such  a  coolness,  though   Alexis 


60  DEPOSITION    or    THE    PATRIARCH    NICON 

had  certainly  some  share  of  anibition  and  vanity,  and  was  iras- 
cible when  crossed  in  his  wishes.  It  is  more  probable  that  he 
had  not  counted  the  cost  of  that  conduct  to  which  he  seemed  to 
have  pledged  himself  when  he  suspended  for  Nicon's  sake  the 
provisions  of  the  Code ;  and  that  he  was  influenced  by  the  mix- 
ture of  reasonableness  which  there  might  seem  to  be  either  in 
those  provisions  themselves,  or  at  any  rate  in  the  demand  that, 
being  part  of  the  Code,  and  unrepealed,  they  should  be  carried 
into  effect ;  and  also  by  a  sense  of  the  necessity  of  either  giving 
his  consent  to  this  or  breaking  immediately  and  completely  with 
his  own  relatives  and  all  their  party  in  the  Councd,  and  giving 
Nicon's  principles  a  complete  and  permanent  triumph  at  the 
risk  perhaps  of  his  throne.  But  whatever  w-ere  the  secret  causes 
which  first  cooled  the  ardour  of  his  affection  for  the  Patriarch, 
having  once  committed  himself  to  a  retrograde  step,  and  finding 
that  the  Patriarch  had  foreseen  all  from  the  beginning,  and 
would  yield  nothing,  he  was  carried  on  by  a  sort  of  necessity 
from  one  thing  to  another :  the  political,  and  at  length  even  the 
personal  estrangement  of  the  Tsar  from  the  Patriarch  became 
wider,  and  the  anti-ecclesiastical  tendencies  of  that  party  to 
which  the  Tzar  had  now  committed  himself,  more  manifest. 

Not  only  were  the  obnoxious  provisions  of  the  Code  carried  into 
execution,  while  a  lay  Court,  called  the  Monastery  Court,  over- 
ruled the  Court  of  the  Patriarch,  but  spiritual  patronage,  and 
even  Ordination  itself,  was  made  to  depend  in  some  cases  on  the 
direct  oi'der  of  the  Sovereign  :  whereas  a  few  years  before,  when 
some  clerks  had  sought  to  interest  the  Tsar  in  their  favour, 
Alexis  had  replied  thus :  "  I  fear  the  Patriarch  Nicon ;  he  will 
say  to  me.  Do  I  interfere  with  you  in  the  command  of  your 
armies,  or  the  government  of  your  kingdom  ?  Why  then  do  you 
seek  to  interfere  with  me  in  the  disciplining  of  monks  and 
clerks  ?  " 

Under  these  circumstances  Nicon,  as  a  last  expedient  to 
touch  the  reason  and  conscience  of  the  better-minded  among: 
the  Boyars,  and  especially  of  his  Sovereign,  solemnly  declared  in 
the  Cathedral  that  if  he,  as  was  said,  were  the  cause  of  every- 
thing that  went  wrong  in  the  State,  and  even  in  nature,  he  would 
leave  them  to  themselves  :  he  could  not  be  their  Patriarch,  if 
the  acts  that   belonged  to  him  to  do  were  to  be  done  by  others 


IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  01 

on  the  order  of  the  Tsar,  or  of  the  Boyars  :  they  might  see  how 
they  couhl  administer  the  Patriarchal  power  without  him.  And 
so  saying,  he  left  his  crozier  in  the  church,  and  went  away  in 
the  habit  of  a  common  monk  forty  versts  from  Moscow,  to  Vos- 
kresensk,  where  he  was  building  a  great  Monastery  to  be  called 
Neiv  Jerusalem,  with  a  church  after  a  model  of  that  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  and  of  the  Resurrection  which  he  had  procured  from 
Palestine. 

But  evil  prevailed  :  and  there  were  weaknesses  in  the  charac-,,^ 
ter  of  Alexis  which  made  him  persist,  when  he  had  once  com-  | 
mitted  himself,  and  had  met  with  opposition.  Instead  of  being 
brought  to  a  better  mind,  the  Council  of  the  Boyars  were  for 
taking  Nicon  at  his  word :  and  so,  affecting  to  view  his  retire- 
ment as  a  simple  resignation,  they  sent  and  demanded  of  him 
his  consent  to  the  consecration  of  a  successor.  Failing  to  obtain 
this,  and  being  practically  embarrassed  by  his  refusal  to  exercise 
the  Primacy  subject  to  their  lay  encroachments  and  interfer- 
ences, they  charged  all  the  inconveniences  which  ensued  upon 
him,  and  made  his  retirement  itself  into  a  State  crime.  How 
great  was  Nicon's  power  and  personal  influence,  and  how  deep 
the  struggle  which  was  now  going  on  throughout  the  whole 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  constitution  of  Russia,  was  sufficiently 
shown  by  the  fact  that  this  position  of  the  two  parties,  the 
Patriarcli  living  ui  retirement  at  Voskresensk,  and  the  Civil  Power 
administering  the  Church  temporarily,  through  such  of  the 
Ecclesiastics  as  would  serve  it,  without  a  Patriarch,  lasted  no 
less  than  eight  years,  (a.d.  1658 — 1667.) 

One  incident  of  this  period,  for  its  indirect  bearing  upon  the 
sin  of  Alexis  himself,  and  its  punishment  in  his  posterity,  de- 
serves notice  : 

One  or  two  Boyars,  who  had  parted  with  a  certain  property 
to  Nicon  for  his  Convent  of  New  Jerusalem,  the  acquisition  of 
the  property  being  contrary  to  the  mortmain  laws  and  to  the 
Code,  but  rendered  lawful  by  the  licence  of  the  Tsar,  took  occa- 
sion from  the  re-inforcement  of  the  Code  to  redemand  and  recover 
their  property.  Nicon  caused  these  men  to  be  openly  anathe- 
matized, and  made  his  clerks  sing  certain  imprecatory  Psalms 
in  the  Office  used  on  the  occasion  :  "  AUuaov,  Kvpis,  touc  aS<- 
jcoOvraj  jU.="    x..  r,  ?..      Tlpoa^ii  avo^lctv   ln\   t^v   uvoit-lctv   avTcov'  .  .  » 


62  DKrOSITION    OF    THE    PATRIARCH    NICON 

e^a?'.Bt^^rjw(Tuv  sx.  /3(j(3Xou  ^cwvtojV  x.  t.  X.  Psvyj9i^Ta)(r«v  ol  vlo) 
uvTob  op^uvo),  xci\  Yj  yvvYj  avTOU  yrjpx'  rsvrj^YjTcu  to.  tskvcx  aiiTOU 
slg  i^oKo^(,iV7iV  k.  r.  X.  'Av^'  wv  riyot.TTr\(js  KuTxpuv,  xct)  rj^ci 
auTCW,  xa»  oux  ^9;A>jo"ev  ev\oylxv,  kui  f/.axpuvQ^asT'xi  Uii  uutou. 
X.  T.  K."  The  news  of  this  was  soon  carried  to  the  Court,  and 
it  was  asserted  there,  not  unnaturally,  by  Nicon's  enemies  that 
he  had  anathematized  and  cursed  his  Sovereign ;  seeing  that 
their  sacrilege,  which  he  had  cursed,  and  the  individuals  named 
were  identified  by  them  with  the  Tsar  and  his  government.  A 
commissioner  was  sent  from  the  Council  in  the  Tsar's  name  to  the 
Patriarch  to  demand  whether  he  had  not  cursed  the  Tsar ;  and, 
if  not,  whom  had  he  cursed,  or  what  had  he  done  ?  The  com- 
missioner, who  came  with  an  air  of  rude  command,  was  made  to 
wait  till  Divine  Service  was  over,  and  then  was  told  by  the  Patri- 
arch that  he  had  noi  cursed  Alexis,  nor  had  intended  what  was 
done  for  him ;  but  that  he  had  cursed  certain  individuals,  rob- 
bers of  the  Church,  whom  he  named  ;  and,  if  they  had  a  mind 
to  stay  and  hear  it,  he  would  have  the  same  Office  sung  over 
again  in  their  ears.  So  they  returned  with  this  answer :  but 
from  that  day  forth  it  was  one  of  the  chief  accusations  against 
Nicon  that  he  had  cursed  the  Sovereign  :  and  Nicon,  without  hav- 
ing really  cursed  him,  (for  he  could  distinguish  between  the  sin, 
though  great,  of  a  religious  and  affectionate  soul  and  the  obdu- 
racy of  malicious  wickedness,)  yet  showed,  as  we  shall  see  here- 
after, that  he  feared  lest  Alexis  might  indeed  be  comprehended 
under  the  curse  in  point  of  fact,  and  might  be  drawing  down  its 
judgments  on  himself  and  on  his  posterity. 

At  length,  after  the  struggle  had  continued  eight  years,  the 
Patriarchate  having  been  all  that  time  in  a  sort  of  abeyance,  and 
an  attempt  to  procure  the  deposition  of  Nicon  by  a  synod  of 
Russian  Bishops  having  failed,  the  Tsar  was  induced  to  call  in 
the  four  Eastern  Patriarchs  and  a  number  of  Greek  Metropo- 
litans and  Bishojjs,  who,  uniting  with  the  Russian  Bishops  in  a 
mixed  synod  at  Moscow  in  the  year  1666,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Tsar  himself  and  of  the  Boyars,  judged  and  deposed  Nicon  in 
such  manner  as  was  desired  of  them,  and  were  honourably  dis- 
missed to  their  own  countries  with  the  rewards  of  their  service. 
Two  only  of  the  four  Patriarchs  were  personally  present,  Paisius 
of  Alexandria  and  Macarius  of  Antioch,  the  latter  of  whom  had 


IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  63 

been  in  Russia  before  when  Nicon  was  at  the  height  of  his 
power,  and  had  received  of  his  bounty :  but  all  the  four  were 
parties  to  what  was  done. 

For  the  full  history  of  this  memorable  trial  the  inquirer  must 
have  recourse  to  the  life  of  Nicon  by  his  faithful  disciple  and 
clerk  ShttsherinofF,  which  has  been  printed,  and  to  such  other 
contemporary  documents  as  are  preserved  in  MS.  in  Russia  or 
in  the  Levant.  But  one  or  two  incidents  are  too  characteristic 
to  be  here  altogether  omitted.  Nicon  appeared  before  the  synod 
prepared  and  habited  as  if  for  a  capital  condemnation.  Alexis, 
who  though  unprepared  to  recede  had  yet  been  sinning  against 
his  better  nature  and  conscience  throughout,  and  retained  at 
heart  much  of  his  former  respect  and  affection  for  the  Patriarch, 
was  shocked  at  this  ;  and  to  the  consternation  of  his  Boyars  left 
his  throne,  and  walked  up  to  the  Patriarch,  took  his  hand,  and 
expostulated  with  him  for  thinking  him  capable  of  such  inten- 
tions. A  conversation  of  some  length  in  an  under  tone  followed, 
the  Patriarch  explaining  how  some  things  misunderstood  by  the 
Tsar  had  really  been,  and  exposing  the  arts  and  motives  of  his 
enemies ;  and  the  Tsar,  as  if  admitting  that  he  had  been  more 
or  less  in  the  wrong,  protesting  that  even  yet  he  hoped  they 
might  be  able  to  avoid  extremities.  But  Nicon  told  him  plainly, 
though  gently,  that  he  was  deceiving  himself  if  he  thought  that 
possible  :  that  he  could  not  now  go  back,  even  if  he  would  : 
that  his  wrath  must  be  gone  through  with,  and  be  satisfied. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  one  of  Nicon's  clerks,  forgetting  him- 
self for  indignation  at  some  false  witness,  exclaimed  audibly, 
"  That,  0  religious  Tsar,  is  a  lie  !  "  the  Tsar  showed  no  anxiety 
to  learn  the  truth,  but  rather  anger  and  fury  at  the  clerk's 
boldness.  And  when  Nicon's  answers  seemed  to  have  put  his 
accusers  to  shame,  or  to  silence,  Alexis  impatiently  turned  to  the 
Boyars  and  asked  if  none  of  them  would  come  to  the  support  of 
their  Sovereign  ?  Which  call  having  been  answered  as  might  be 
expected,  the  Patriarch  asked  ironically,  "  Why  do  you  not  bid 
them  take  up  stones?  So  they  would  soon  do  the  business,  but 
they  will  never  finish  me  with  words."  However  of  words  too 
there  were  "  enough,  and  more  than  enough,"  the  ex-Archbishop 
of  Gaza,  a  Greek  named  Paisius,  taking  the  lead  in  the  proceed- 
ings with  his  venal   and  turgid   rhetoric,  and  quoting  Christian 


64  UErOSITlON    OF    THE    P.\T11IARCII    NICON 

and  heathen  authors,  verse  and  prose,  indiscriminately  for  the 
deification  of  kings,  till  the  Council,  having  decreed  (what  Nicon 
himself  had  always  taught,)  that  "  the  Tsar  ought  to  be  supreme 
in  civil  government,  and  the  Patriarch  in  spiritual,"  (so  difficult 
is  it  with  full  knowledge  to  lie  distinctly.)  condemned  Nicon  on 
the  charges  brought  against  him ;  degraded  him  from  the 
Patriarchal  and  Episcopal  and  sacerdotal  dignities ;  and  sen- 
tenced him  to  be  confined  in  a  distant  Monastery,  as  a  common 
monk.     This  took  place  in  January,  a.d.  1667. 

Under  these  circumstances,  Nicon  said  to  the  people,  who 
flocked  around  to  receive  his  blessing,  onlythis  one  word  "  Pray." 
To  his  chief  enemies  of  the  Clergy,  who  now  heaped  on  him 
taunts  and  insults,  he  foretold  their  own  approaching  punish- 
ment and  degradation  :  and  some  of  them  he  lived  to  see  falling 
at  his  feet  with  tears  of  repentance.  The  Patriarchs  he  rebuked 
for  their  unworthy  compliance  for  the  sake  of  a  miserable  gain  ; 
offering  them  significantly  a  large  pearl  from  the  front  of  the 
Camilauchion  which  they  took  from  him,  and  saying  thus, 
"After  all,  if  you  do  get  for  this  some  alms,  to  cheer  you  under 
the  miseries  and  oppressions  you  suffer  from  the  Turks,  it  will 
not  last  you  long  :  and  you  might  be  more  suitably  and  profitably 
employed  than  in  wandering  into  distant  countries  as  mendi- 
cants." While  this  was  passing,  or  soon  after,  the  Tsar  sent 
one  of  his  Boyars,  a  man  of  the  better  sort,  with  a  present  of 
money  and  furs  for  Nicon  and  his  attendants,  for  their  journey  : 
for  they  had  nothing  with  them  of  their  own,  and  were  to  be 
sent  immediately  to  a  Monastery  quite  in  the  north  of  Russia,  it 
being  then  the  month  of  January,  and  the  frost  being  very  severe. 
But  Nicon,  pointing  to  the  presents,  said,  "  Take  these  things 
back  to  him  who  sent  them :  these  are  not  what  Nicon  wants." 
The  officer,  after  having  in  vain  in  treated  him  not  to  dishonour  and 
hurt  his  master  by  such  a  refusal  of  his  bounty,  stepped  up  to 
him  and  said,  "The  Tsar  commanded  me  also  to  ask  your ybr- 
giveness,  and  your  blessing."  Nicon  replied  with  those  words  of 
the  Psalm  which  have  been  quoted  already  above,  "  Ouk  ^9=Arj(rsv 
evkoyiav,"  (that  is,  not  sufficiently,  nor  with  singleness  of  heart) 
"x«j  S»a  TouTo  jjicuxf^uvsTcti  octt'  aiiToii'"  alluding,  directly,  to  his  own 
exile,  and  indirectly  to  the  probable  punishment  of  the  Tsar's  sin. 
In  getting  into  the  sledge  which  was  to  take  him  away  from  Mos- 


IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  6') 

COW,  Nicon  repeated  aloud  to  himself  with  a  dry  iiony  these 
words,  recollected  probably  from  some  former  conversation, 
"Ah  !  Nicon,  Nicon,  don't  lose  your  friends :  don^t  say  all  that 
may  be  true :  If  you  would  only  have  given  a  few  handsome 
banquets,  and  would  have  supped  with  them,  all  these  things 
would  not  have  befallen  you." 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  such  a  man  as  Nicon,  or  such  a 
cause  as  his,  were  without  many  devoted  adherents,  especially 
among  the  Clergy.  Of  these  some  were  even  put  to  death ; 
others  were  examined  with  tortures ;  many  were  sent  into  con- 
finement in  dififerent  monasteries,  and  kept  prisoners  as  long  as 
fifteen  or  sixteen  years.  A  few  were  permitted  to  accompany 
him  to  Bielo-ozero,  and  to  share  his  confinement.  Among  the 
people  too,  notwithstanding  the  prejudices  of  some  of  them  con- 
cerning the  Church  Books,  there  was  such  a  feeling  in  his  favour 
that  the  Government  proceeded  with  the  utmost  caution,  and 
even  timidity,  in  carrying  his  sentence  into  execution.  The 
guards  within  the  Kremlin  were  directed  to  behave  to  the  as- 
sembled multitudes  with  all  possible  courtesy,  and  to  inform 
them  that  Nicon  would  leave  ''by  the  North  side;"  whereas,  in 
fact,  the  gates  were  closed,  and  he  was  suddenly  driven  with  all 
speed,  strongly  escorted,  across  the  bridge  to  the  South  side  of 
the  river,  and  so  out  of  the  city  and  the  suburbs  in  an  opposite 
direction.  Having  refused  the  Tsar's  gifts,  he  was  indebted  for 
a  cloke  to  the  casual  pity  of  an  individual,  an  Archimandrite,  of 
the  Clergy ;  and  both  he  and  his  attendants  suffered  much  from 
the  severe  cold.  They  were  driven  rapidly  through  all  those 
towns  and  villages  passing  through  which  could  not  be  avoided, 
and  were  not  allowed  to  stop  anywhere,  nor  to  purchase  anything 
for  themselves  by  the  way. 

At  length  they  halted  for  the  night ;  and  were  quartered  in 
some  houses,  from  which  the  occupants  had  first  been  carefully 
ejected.  But  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  when  Nicon  and  his 
few  attendants  had  been  left  to  themselves,  a  trap-door  in  the 
floor  of  the  room  opened,  and  an  old  woman  came  up,  who  first 
asked  which  was  the  Patriarch  Nicon ;  and  Nicon  answering, 
"/am  he,"  she  fell  at  his  feet,  and  declared  to  him,  with  many 
protestations  that  it  was  true,  that  she  had  been  warned  in  a 
dream  the  night  before  to  expect  him.     She  had  seen,  she  said, 

F 


66  DEPOSITION    OF    THE    PATRIARCH     NICON 

a  very  goodly  man,  saying  to  her,  "  IMy  servant  Nicon  is  coming 
hither  in  great  cold  and  need  of  all  things  :  now,  therefore,  give 
him  what  thou  hast  by  thee  for  his  needs."  In  consequence  of 
this,  she  said,  she  had  concealed  herself  in  the  cellar  before  the 
Tsar's  officers  came  and  took  possession  of  her  house  and  ejected  its 
other  occupants.  And  thereupon  she  produced  a  number  of  fur 
clokes,  and  other  garments  belonging  to  her  sons  (who  lived  with 
her  in  the  house,)  and  money,  and  pressed  his  acceptance  of  them 
for  himself  and  his  Clerks.  And  Nicon  accepted  this  provision, 
which  was  thus  provided  for  him,  instead  of  that  which  he  had  re- 
fused from  the  Tsar. 

Nicon  lived  many  years  after  his  dej)Osition,  and  outlived 
Alexis.  He  never  in  any  way  recognized  the  justice  of  his  sen- 
tence :  nor  did  the  Clerks  who  attended  him  ever  cease  to  give 
him  the  title  of  Patriarch,  or  to  pray  for  him  as  such  in  their 
Offices.  Alexis,  on  the  other  hand,  ceased  not  to  send  from  time 
to  time  to  ask  his  forgiveness,  and  to  ofier  him  presents,  which 
for  some  time  Nicon  refused.  His  confinement  was  at  first  ex- 
tremely rigorous;  the  windows  of  his  cell  being  fastened  up 
with  iron  bars,  and  he  not  being  allowed  to  go  out  even  for  exer- 
cise. But  at  length  Alexis,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Council, 
sent  secret  orders  to  soften  in  some  degree  this  excessive  rigour ; 
and  the  iron  bars  on  his  windows  were  removed  :  for  which  an  ofti- 
cial  reprimand  from  the  Council  followed,  as  if  it  had  been  done 
without  authority.  At  length,  seeing  that  what  was  done  could 
not  be  undone,  and  that,  whatever  had  been  the  Tsar's  fault  once, 
he  could  now  no  longer,  perhaps,  retrace  his  steps,  nor  extricate 
himself  from  those  political  necessities  and  influences  which  sur- 
rounded him,  Nicon  refused  not  to  acknowledge  what  was  good 
in  the  character  of  his  Sovereign,  and  wrote  him  a  letter  saying 
that  he  forgave  him  personalli/,  as  a  man,  whatever  he  had  wrong- 
fully suffered,  and  thus  far  sent  him  his  blessing,  and  for  the 
future  would  accept  his  presents.  Yet  even  thus, — consider- 
ing that  the  Almighty  might  even  yet  give  the  Tsar  another 
opportunity,  and  not  willing  either  to  do  anything  towards  un- 
duly lulling,  or  to  neglect  to  do  anything  towards  quickening 
and  informing  his  conscience, — he  hinted  that  this  was  but  an 
imperfect  and  personal  forgiveness  ;  and  that  there  was  a  more 
full  and  Ecclesiastical  absolution,  xvith  imposition  of  hands,  which 


IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  67 

Alexis  had  need  to  desire,  and  which  he  would  then  be  ready  to  give 
when  he  should  again  see  the  Tsar's  face  in  Moscow.  But  this 
involved  the  complete  undoing  of  the  past,  and  the  fall  from 
power  of  Nicon's  enemies;  a  mercy  which  Providence  had  not 
in  store  for  Alexis.  Nevertheless  Alexis  was  greatly  pleased  at 
the  Patriarch's  having  relaxed  thus  far ;  and  thenceforth  sent 
him  many  presents,  and  especially  ornaments  and  vestments  for 
one  of  the  Chapels  of  the  Monastery  in  which  he  was  now  permitted 
to  officiate;  and  desired  his  prayers  for  himself  and  his  family; 
and  on  his  deathbed,  by  special  messengers,  as  well  as  by  his 
written  Testament,  he  once  more  solemnly  asked  Nicon's  "forgive- 
ness and  absolution,"  calling  him  his  "  Spiritual  Father,  Great 
Lord,  Most  Holy  liierarch,  and  blessed  Pastor,"  giving  him 
(which  is  remarkablej  his  title  of  Patriarch,  and  regretting  that 
"by  the  judgments  of  God  "  (that  is  to  say,  not  by  the  Tsar's 
own  will,)  he  was  not  then  in  his  proper  place,  filling  the  Patri- 
archal throne  of  Moscow.  And  Nicon  (though  Alexis  died  before 
it  could  reach  him,)  sent  once  more  his  personal  and  verbal  forgive- 
ness (refusing  to  give  it  in  writing, lest  the  Boyars  should  make  any 
undue  use  of  it),  and  alluded  once  more  with  a  sigh  to  that  public 
sin  of  which  it  was  beijond  him  either  to  remit  the  guilt,  or  to  avert  the 
consequences :  "  We  shall  meet  before  the  dread  tribunal  of  God  ! " 
Looking  closelylhto  the  character  of  Alexis,  we  may  remark 
in  his  written  Testament  and  Letters,  and  in  the  words  and  actions 
of  his  life,  an  abundance  of  affectionate  and  religious  feeling 
running  in  its  expression  into  imaginativeness  and  hyperbole. 
He  had  many  of  the  qualities  of  a  great  and  good  Sovereign  ;  but 
was  not  exempt  from  ambition,  vanity,  and  irascibility ;  nor 
from  a  certain  weakness,  consequent  on  these  faults,  leading  him, 
when  once  committed,  to  persist  in  what  was  wrong.  His  vanity 
was  perhaps  enlisted  in  the  struggle  against  the  spiritual  inde-, 
pendence  of  the  Patriarchate  :  and  when  they  told  him  that 
educated,  as  he  had  been,  at  the  feet  of  his  grandfather  Philaret, 
and  fit  to  be  a  Bishop  himself,  he  had  not  only  the  right  to 
govern,  but  the  capacity  to  govern  well  in  Ecclesiastical  matters, 
he  may  have  been  all  the  more  inclined  to  listen  to  those  other 
arguments  which  represented  the  struggle  as  being  simply  for  an 
unmixed  spiritual  or  an  unmixed  civil  supremacy,  and  a  choice 
between  either  putting  down  Nicon  or  i-esigning  to  him  Moscow,  as 

F  2 


68  DEPOSITION    OF    THE    PATRIARCH    NICON 

Constantine  the  Great  was  fabled  to  have  resigned  his  capital  of 
the  elder  Rome  to  Pope  Silvester.  The  outward  moral  signs 
which  a  severe  scrutiny  of  Alexis'  public  government  and  private 
life  forces  us  to  notice  are  these :  firstly,  that  whatever  may 
have  been  the  merits  or  demerits  of  Nicon  and  his  party,  their 
enemies  (and  the  Tsar's  nearest  connections  among  them)  ivere 
plainly  bad  men ;  and  to  these  bad  men  Alexis,  by  his  conduct,  se- 
aired  the  government  of  his  kingdom,  and  enthralled  himself : 
secondly,  that  the  religious  feeling  and  domestic  affectionate- 
ness  of  Alexis  did  not  prevent  his  forming  at  least  onje_jUicit 
connection ;  as  we  read  of  a  natural  son  who,  with  his  mother, 
Avas  sent  away  from  the  Court  about  the  time  of  Alexis'  second 
marriage.  It  might  be  worth  while  to  inquire  more  accurately 
into  the  circumstances  and  dates  connected  with  the  commence- 
ment of  this,  or  of  any  other  similar  and  previous  connection. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  more  we  scrutinize  the  character  of 
Nieon,  the  less  reason  shall  we  find  to  charge  him  with  any  of 
those  faults  which  were  imputed  to  him  by  his  enemies.  There 
was  nothing  about  him  like  ignorance  of  the  distinction  and  due 
limits  between  the  civil  and  the  spii'itual  power,  nor  any  sort  of  ap- 
parent disposition  to  either  worldly  or  spiritual  pride  or  ambition. 
During  the  long-protracted  struggle  we  see  from  his  life  what 
he  claimed  for  himself  personally,  namely,  severe  penances  and 
mortifications  for  his  own  sins  and  the  sins  of  his  people,  hard 
fare,  a  stone  couch  and  pillow,  and  heavy  chains.  And  the 
Ecclesiastics  and  others  who  were  personally  attached  to  him 
appear  to  have  been  men  of  the  like  spirit,  with  whom  his  ene- 
mies of  the  Hierarchy  and  of  the  Boyars  offer  the  most  marked 
and  sometimes  grotesque  contrasts. 

Several  of  Alexis'  sons  and  daughters  were  godchildren  to 
Nicon  :  and  a  sister  of  Alexis,  the  Princess  Tatiana  Michaelovna, 
when  Nicon  was  in  confinement,  and  his  enemies  governing 
Russia  in  the  Council,  used  to  relate  to  her  nephew  Theodore 
Alexievich  stories  of  the  virtues  of  that  great  Patriarch,  and  of  the 
wickedness  of  his  enemies  :  how  he  had  contended  and  suffered 
for  the  Church  of  God  :  and  how  the  building  of  his  great  Mo- 
nastery of  the  "New  Jerusalem,"  with  its  Church  imitated  from 
that  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  and  the  Resurrection,  was  suspended 
in  consequence  of  his  unjust  deposition  and  imprisonment. 


IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  69 

When  Theodore  succeeded  to  his  father  Alexis,  (a,  d.  1676,) 
he  was  too  young  to  attempt  to  govern  by  himself;  but  his  first 
j)olitical  acts  were  attempts  to  obtain  from  the  Council  the  libera- 
tion, or  at  least  the  less  rigorous  confinement,  of  his  Godfather. 
And  on  Nicon's  death,  which  took  place  (in  1681.)  just  after  an 
order  had  been  obtained  for  his  liberation,  with  permission  to  re- 
turn and  die  in  his  own  Convent  of  Voskresensk,  Theodore,  having 
learned  to  view  the  past  struggle  in  its  true  light,  desired  the  titular 
Patriarch  to  bury  him  with  the  honours  due  to  his  rank  :  and 
on  the  Patriarch,  as  might  have  been  expected,  declining,  and 
objecting  the  authority  of  the  Eastern  Patriarchs  and  the 
Synod  which  had  deposed  and  degraded  Nicon,  the  young  Tsar 
estimated  that  objection  at  its  just  weight.  He  commanded  the 
next  senior  Prelate,  the  Metropolitan  of  Novogorod,  to  do  his 
will;  and  himself  took  the  lead  in  bearing  the  body  to  the 
grave.  And  not  content  with  this,  he  sent  his  messengers  and 
alms  into  the  East,  and  procured  from  the  four  Patriarchs  four 
Letters  or  Acts,  which  under  a  cloud  of  decent  verbiage  rehabi- 
litated the  memory  of  the  deceased  ;  an  act  which  being  done 
to  satisfy  the  religious  conscience  of  the  son,  was  no  doubt  at 
least  as  valid  as  the  former  contrary  act  which  had  been  done  to 
serve  the  political  requirements  of  the  father.  The  motives 
and  the  recompense  were  in  both  cases  the  same.  It  seemed  as 
if  Theodore  had  been  placed  on  the  throne  merely  to  complete 
in  this  graceful  and  touching  way  the  acknowledgments  of 
Alexis,  and  then  was  removed  to  make  way  for  impending 
punishments. 

Thus  ended  this  remarkable  episode  in  Russian  history,  so  far 
as  it  was  merely  a  personal  matter.  But  of  its  political  and 
ecclesiastical  consequences  men  saw  not  as  yet,  or  scarcely  saw, 
so  much  as  the  beginning.  Nor  are  we  yet  come  to  their  end 
even  now,  after  two  centuries.  For  the  fall  of  Nieon  was  that 
point  and  crisis  on  which  the  subsequent  developments  of  many 
generations,  both  religious  and  political,  were  to  turn. 

What  then  are  the  consequences  to  be  attributed  to  the  fall 
of  Nicon  ?  it  will  be  asked.  This  question  may  be  most  briefly 
and  most  strikingly  answered,  at  least  for  such  as  are  capable  of 
reflection,  by  another ;  by  asking,  what  would  have  been  the 
])rubable   or    necessary   consequences,  if  Alexis   had  acted  dif- 


/O  DEPOSITION     tH'    TIIK    I'ATlllAKCH     NICON 

ferently  ;  if  he  had  consistently  supported  Nicon,  and  enabled 
him  to  put  down  his  enemies  ?  They  would  have  been  these  : 
The  government  of  the  State,  as  well  as  of  the  Church,  would 
have  been  placed  and  secured  in  the  hands  of  his  friends,  men 
like  him  :  the  power  of  some  great  and  bad  men,  near  to  the 
Tsar,  would  have  been  effectually  broken :  Alexis  on  his  death- 
bed would  not  have  had  to  feel  the  loss  of  a  true  personal  friend, 
nor  to  dread  leaving  an  unsettled  government  to  a  sickly  boy, 
surrounded  by  bad  men,  who  could  not  be  trusted  to  act  justly 
by  his  second  wife  and  her  family.  On  the  contrary  he  would 
have  left  his  elder  son  Theodore,  and  his  second  family,  to  the 
charge  of  his  Godfather,  with  a  Government  long  since  securely 
settled  in  the  hands  of  good  men,  among  whom  Matveeff  would 
naturally  have  held  a  prominent  place.  The  deaths  of  Nicon 
and  of  Theodore  himself  would  have  caused  no  danger  with  such 
a  Government.  Matveeff  would  not  have  been  in  exile  at  the 
moment  when  all  depended  on  his  presence.  Sophia  (if  her  own 
character  had  not  been  differently  developed,)  would  have  had 
no  opportunity  of  returning  the  sin  of  her  father  upon  the  heads 
of  his  children  through  her  unhallowed  ambition.  She  would 
not  have  been  able  to  deprive  Peter  of  a  becoming  education. 
Peter  would  not  have  been  self-educated,  or  educated  by  such 
men  as  Lefort,  but  by  the  disciples  and  friends  of  Nicon  and 
Matveeff.  When  he  came,  duly  prepared,  to  power,  he  would 
not  have  found  an  obscurantist  and  retrograde  Hierarchy  which 
had  already  become  the  tools  of  the  Boyars,  and  deserved  no- 
thing better  than  to  receive  the  Tsar,  or  the  Tsar's  sword,  for 
their  Patriarch  :  nor  would  he  have  found  a  Nobility  incapable 
of  appreciating  any  thing  great  and  useful  in  his  schemes,  or 
incapable  of  restraining  him  by  the  weight  of  a  legitimate  in- 
fluence from  any  thing  unnational  or  preuiature  3  nor  one  which 
for  having  trampled  the  Church  under  their  feet  deserved  to  be 
trampled  down  themselves  in  turn,  and  to  lose  that  political  im- 
portance which  they  had  before  possessed.  He  would  never  have 
had  occasion,  real  or  imaginary,  for  making  the  horrible  sacrifice 
of  his  only  sou  and  heir  to  the  idol  Civilization.  Nor  would  his 
throne  have  been  left  a  prey  to  adventurers,  to  be  occupied  by 
a  strange  woman  of  low  origin.  Nor  would  the  succession  to 
the  throne  have  been  made  to  depend  on  the  mere  personal  will 


IN  THE  SEVENTEKNTH  CENTURY, 


71 


of  the  Sovereign,  and  rendered  still  more  insecure  by  the  pros- 
tration of  its  natural  bulwarks,  the  Hierarchy  and  the  Nobility. 
Nor  would  his  posterity  in  the  female  line  (if  the  succession  had 
ever  come  to  them,)  have  either  been  what  they  were,  or  suc- 
ceeded as  they  succeeded  to  the  throne,  or  have  done  what  they 
did  when  seated  on  it.  Nor  would  another  strange  woman,  the 
very  type  and  embodiment  of  bis  worldly  policy,  and  such  an 
heir  as  his  patriotism  might  have  preferred  to  lineal  descendants, 
have  murdered  the  last  remains  of  his  brother^s  posterity  and 
his  own.  These  are  the  things  which  humanly  speaking,  would 
not  and  could  not  have  happened,  if  Nicon  had  been  maintained 
in  power.  Whatever  might  have  been  the  future  destinies  of 
Russia,  they  could  not  have  been  these. 

But  Nicon  fell :  and  his  fall  drew  after  it  the  deserved  punish- 
ment both  of  the  Clergy,  and  of  the  Nobility,  and  of  the  reign-  ^ 
ing  House  ;  a  punishment  which  can  never  be  reversed  till  the  sin 
which  caused  it  is  adequately  confessed,   and  justice  done  to    \ 
those  rights  of  the  Church  which  Nicon  represented.     For  it  J 
was  not  a  mere  personal  struggle,  but  a  struggle  of  two  con-     ) 
trary  principles    concentrated,    as   often    happens,  around    the    / 
person  of  a  man  whose  position  and  character  made  him  the  apt    \ 
representative  and  embodiment  of  one  of  them.  ■-' 

But  if  this  view  be  correct,  and  the  fault  of  Alexis  was  to  be  so 
terribly  punished,  how  is  it  that  we  see  after  a  century  and  a 
half  such  a  Sovereign  as  Alexander,  in  spite  of  the  influences  of  a 
philosophical  education  in  a  vicious  Court,  throwing  himself 
back  upon  principles  of  true  patriotism  and  Orthodoxy  at  the 
great  crisis  of  his  reign,  the  invasion  of  Russia  by  the  French  ? 
Or  how  is  it  that  we  see  again  his  brother,  the  present  Emperor, 
standing  forth  as  the  champion  of  order  and  religion,  attracting 
the  respect  of  all  well-disposed  people  throughout  Europe  by  his 
public  character  as  a  governor,  and  surrounded  by  a  numerous 
and  amiable  family,  blessed  with  every  apparent  prospect  of 
leaving  a  throne  secured  to  his  posterity  for  many  generations  ? 
And  all  this  too  while  the  Patriarchate  or  Primacy  is  still  not 
only  infringed  upon,  but  suppressed  ;  while  the  just  liberty  of 
the  Church  for  spiritual  action  is  still  denied  her ;  while  the  . 
Emperor  is  still  "  Supreme  Judge  "  of  the  Most  Holy  Synod  ;  an^  ; 
an  Act  in  which  he  is  even   styled  "  Head  of  the  Church  "  still' 


72  DEPOSITION     OF    THE    PATRIAKCH    NICON 

lies  upon  the  Altar  of  the  Cathedral  in  which  he  was  Crowned  at 
Moscow  ? 

In  answer  to  this  question  the  reader  may  be  reminded  of 
what  has  been  said  above,  namely,  that  the  consequences  of  the 
struggle  of  the  seventeenth  century  have  not  yet  been  fully 
worked  out.  The  relative  positions  of  the  secular  and  spiritual 
powers  have  not  even  yet  come  to  their  final  settlement.  During 
the  last  two  reigns,  though  there  has  been  no  avowal  of  past 
faults  towards  the  Church,  there  has  been  a  sort  of  awkward 
attempt  to  dissemble  and  palliate  them ;  a  half- movement  in  a 
retrograde  direction.  "  We  do  not  now  any  longer  such  things 
as  were  done  by  Peter  the  Great :"  "  It  must  be  confessed 
that  Peter  had  une  volonte  forte,  and  did  some  things  rather 
brusquely :  but  the  Eastern  Patriarchs  made  good  whatever  was 
irregular  by  their  acquiescence,  and  by  their  recognition  of  the 
Synod :"  "  I  am  only  Oher-politzee-meister  in  the  Church :" 
"If  the  Emperor  is  called  the  Head  of  the  Church,  or  the 
Supreme  Judge  of  the  Synod,  such  titles  mean  only  that  he  is 
the  supreme  protector  and  guardian  of  the  dogmas  of  the 
dominant  faith,  the  conservator  of  right  faith  and  of  all  good 
order  in  the  holy  Church."  Such  is  the  language  of  the  civil 
power  in  the  present  day.  And  so  long  as  we  see  the  mass  of 
the  peo})le  uneducated  and  believing,  free  from  the  idea  or  con- 
sciousness of  acquiescing  in  a  State  Supremacy  in  religion,  while 
the  State  itself  on  the  other  hand  dissembles  its  usurpations,  and 
even  slightly  retrogrades  from  them,  or  from  their  consequences, 
we  may  fairly  say  that  the  principles  established  have  not  as  yet 
been  carried  out  in  practice  to  their  extreme  consequences. 

But  this  answer  alone  is  no  doubt  insufficient.  What  if  in 
the  sight  of  heaven  the  present  Emperor  and  his  Family  are  free 
from  the  sin  of  Alexis  and  its  debt  of  punishment  ?  For  it  is 
not  the  same  thing  to  inherit,  as  to  create  evil.  What  if  they 
have  been  placed  where  they  are  to  be  on  their  trial  now ;  to  have 
the  knowledge  and  opportunity  offered  them  to  amend  what  is 
amiss  in  their  inherited  relations  to  the  Church  ;  to  atone  for  the 
faults  of  their  predecessors;  and  so  by  doing  their  duty  towards 
(jloD  and  His  Church  to  merit  the  establishment  of  their  throne? 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  unhappily  they  should  neglect  the 
grace   and  ()])portuni(y  given   them,  identifying  themselves  in 


IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  73 

spirit  with  the  unacknowledged  and  unrepented  sins  of  the  State, 
and  either  personally  repeating  and  increasing  them,  or,  seeing 
their  true  nature,  from  worldly  motives  refusing  to  correct  them, 
then,  before  any  one  can  argue  from  their  prosperity  or  from  the 
prospects  of  their  dynasty  against  the  views  advanced  above,  he 
must  wait  to  the  end,  and  see  what  shall  have  been  the  history 
of  the  present  Family.  God  forbid  that  it  should  resemble  that 
of  the  family  of  Alexis,  which  yet  was  numerous  and  flourishing 
in  its  day,  educated  with  a  refinement  above  the  age  of  that 
Sovereign,  and  in  its  individual  members  not  destitute  either  of 
personal  beauty,  fine  talents,  or  amiable  and  religious  dispo- 
sitions ! 


DISSERTATION     VI. 

OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,    AND    LIBERTY,    IN     RELA- 
TION   TO    ORTHODOX    CHRISTIANITY. 

Irrespectively  of  the  origin  Divine  or  human,  peaceful  or  vio- 
lent, legitimate  or  illegitimate,  of  any  Government,  Christians 
are  taught  by  their  religion  to  obey  the  existing  ruler,  whoever 
he  may  be;  to  obey  him,  that  is,  so  far  as  he  demands  either 
passive  submission  or  active  service  not  inconsistent  with  any 
higher  duty  of  obedience  towards  God. 

"  Let  every  soul"  it  is  written  "  be  subject  unto  the  higher 
powers  :  for  there  is  no  power  but  of  God  :  the  powers  that  be 
are  ordained  of  God  :  whosoever  therefore  resisteth  the  power, 
resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God  :  and  they  that  resist  shall  re- 
ceive to  themselves  damnation.  For  rvilers  are  not  a  terror 
to  good  works,  but  to  the  evil.  Wilt  thou  then  not  be  afraid 
of  the  power  ?  do  that  which  is  good,  and  thou  shalt  have 
praise  of  the  same  :  for  he  is  the  minister  of  God  to  thee  for 
good.  But  if  thou  do  that  which  is  evil,  be  afraid ;  for  he  beareth 
not  the  sword  in  vain  :  for  he  is  the  minister  of  God,  a  revenger 
to  execute  wrath  upon  him  that  doetli  evil.  Wherefore  ye 
must  needs  be  subject,  not  only  for  wrath,  but  also  for  conscience* 
sake.  For  this  cause  pay  ye  tribute  also :  for  they  are  God's 
ministers,  attending  continually  upon  this  very  thing.  Render 
therefore  to  all  their  dues ;  tribute  to  whom  tribute  is  due,  cus- 
tom to  whom  custom,  fear  to  whom  fear,  honour  to  whom 
honour."     Rom.  xiii.  1,  ^c. 

And  again :  "  Submit  yourselves  to  every  ordinance  of  man 
for  the  Lord's  sake ;  whether  it  be  to  the  King  as  supreme,  or 
unto  governors,  as  unto  them  that  are  sent  by  him  for  the  pun- 
ishment of  evil-doers,  and  for  the  praise  of  them  that  do  well. 
For  so  is   the  will   of  God,  that  with  well-doing  ye  may  put  to 


OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,    AND    LIBERTY.        /O 

silence  the  ignorance  of  foolish  men  :  as  free,  and  not  using  your 
liberty  for  a  cloke  of  maliciousness,  but  as  the  servants  of  God. 
Honour  all  men.  Love  the  brotherhood.  Fear  God.  Honour 
the  King.''     1  <S.  Peter  ii.  13,  ^-c. 

If  in  these  passages  monarchy  alone  is  distinctly  mentioned 
this  is  partly  no  doubt  because  the  Apostles  alluded  to  the  then 
existing  Monarchy  of  the  Roman  Empire ;  but  also  and  chiefly 
because  in  strict  truth  monarchy  alone  is  government.  It  alone 
is  agreeable  to  nature  and  reason  and  the  Divine  intention  :  it 
alone  is  consistent  with  itself  in  asserting  authority  and  exacting 
obedience :  it  alone  can  exist  pure  and  absolute,  and  is  most 
perfect  when  most  absolute,  and  stable  and  beneficial  in  propor- 
tion as  subjects  are  penetrated  by  the  spirit  of  obedience  which 
it  inculcates.  It  alone  reproduces  on  earth  a  type  and  image  of 
the  government  of  heaven.  Whereas  what  is  called  popular 
government  is  in  essence  no  government  at  all,  but  only  a  ne- 
gation of  monarchy,  and  a  spirit  of  self-assertion.  Popular 
government  cannot  ever  exist  pure;  but  it  exists  less  or  more 
according  as  the  spirit  of  self-assertion  which  generates  it  has 
been  arrested  and  fixed  at  an  earlier  or  later  stage  of  develop- 
ment by  some  neutraUzing  and  counteracting  elements.  It  is 
by  virtue  of  such  arrestation,  and  by  union  with  such  contrary 
elements  alone,  that  what  are  called  Constitutions  and  popular 
or  mixed  governments  are  formed,  and  subsist,  asserting  incon- 
sistently a  sort  of  spurious  authority,  and  exacting  a  sort  of  un- 
real obedience,  not  in  virtue  of  but  in  spite  of  their  distinctive 
principle.  They  then  approach  nearest  to  true  government,  are 
most  stable,  and  most  beneficial,  when  they  are  most  mixed,  and 
when  their  distinctive  spirit  is  most  checked  and  neutralized. 
But  they  have  then  least  the  nature  of  government,  are  least 
stable,  and  least  capable  of  benefiting  society,  when  they  are 
least  mixed,  and  when  society  is  most  deeply  and  generally  pe- 
netrated by  their  distinctive  spirit  of  self-assertion;  a  spirit 
which  if  unchecked,  or  strong  enough  to  overcome  counteracting 
forces,  tends  to  hurry  society  from  less  popular  to  more  popular 
forms,  and  ultimately  to  produce  on  earth  a  likeness  of  the 
anarchy  of  hell. 

However,   even   those  spurious  forms  of  popular  and  mixed 
government  which  are  governments  only  in  name  are  recognized. 


76        OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,    AND    LIBERTY, 

SO  soon  as  they  exist  de  facto,  by  Christianity.  The  evil  spirit 
and  principle  in  virtue  of  which  they  profess  to  exist  is  con- 
demned ;  but  the  spurious  authority  is  honoured  upon  grounds 
not  its  own,  and  receives  an  obedience  which  it  could  not  claim 
for  itself.  The  expressions  used  by  the  Apostles  when  they 
teach  us  to  submit  " to  every  ordinance  of  man''  and  " to  the 
higher  powers,"  on  the  ground  that  "  the  powers  that  he  are  or- 
dained of  God,"  are  sufficiently  general  to  include  by  implication 
every  variety  of  settled  government  or  polity.  And  this  is  the 
sense  in  which  the  Divine  law  has  been  understood  and  delivered 
to  us  by  the  Church. 

It  may  indeed  sometimes  be  a  question  at  what  precise  point 
of  time  any  government  can  rightly  be  said  to  exist  de  facto, so  as  to 
have  a  true  claim  on  our  submission.  The  Jews  thought  (and 
not  erroneously,)  that  the  empire  of  the  Romans  over  them  had 
been  gained  by  unjust  aggression,  and  they  collected  from  hence 
that  they  had  a  right  to  rebel  against  the  Romans  whenever 
they  could  do  so  with  a  prospect  of  success.  They  thought  too 
that  if  any  one  pretended  to  be  the  legitimate  heir  of  the  throne 
of  David,  the  descendant  of  their  former  kings  who  had  reigned 
by  Divine  appointment,  and  predestined  himself  by  a  Divine 
promise  to  perpetual  and  universal  empire,  such  an  one  could 
not  do  otherwise  than  forbid  them  to  pay  tribute  to  Csesar.  But 
Christ  answered  them,  contrary  to  their  expectations,  that 
having  submitted  to  the  Roman  power,  and  now  using  in  the 
contracts  of  daily  life  money  stamped  with  the  effigy  and  super- 
scription of  Csesar,  they  had  no  right  to  revolt,  but  were  bound 
to  "  render  unto  Csesar  the  things  that  were  Csssar's."  Hence 
we  learn  that  much  less  has  any  other  nation  (for  none  can 
have  a  fairer  pretext  than  had  the  Jews,)  a  right  to  rebel  against 
the  power  to  which  it  has  once  fairly  submitted.  So  long  as 
their  native  force  is  unsubdued  they  are  bound  to  fight  for  their 
country  against  a  foreign  invader :  so  long  as  the  success  of  a 
domestic  usurper  is  doubtful,  and  their  legitimate  Sovereign  has 
his  standard  in  the  field,  they  are  bound  to  abhor  treason,  and 
to  fight  for  their  master's  house.  But  when  once  the  invader  or 
the  usurper  has  conquered,  so  that  resistance  has  ceased,  and 
life  and  property  arc  now  protected  by  his  laws,  and  his  money 
passes  current  as  the   medium  of  peaceful   contracts,  then,  and 


IN    RELATION    TO    ORTHODOX    CHRISTIANITY.  77 

from  that  time  forth,  however  natural  it  may  be  for  national 
pride  or  passion  to  revolt,  the  Divine  law  gives  no  sanction  to 
rebellion.  Such  is  the  Christian  law  of  obedience  to  govern- 
ments which  exist  de  facto. 

But  though  Christians,  so  far  as  they  are  truly  such,  will  be 
peaceable  and  obedient  subjects  or  citizens  under  all  govern- 
ments alike,  it  is  manifest  from  what  has  been  said  above  that 
not  every  form  of  government  is  equally  congenial  to  Christi- 
anity. However  ready  Christians  may  be  to  render  obedience 
and  loyalty,  obedience  and  loyalty  cannot,  from  the  nature  of 
the  things  themselves,  be  rendered  to  a  power,  so-called,  which 
professes  more  or  less  not  to  be  a  power  but  to  depend  on  us,  in 
the  same  sense,  or  in  the  same  degree,  as  to  a  real  power  which 
teaches  us  that  we  depend  on  it.  Christians  rendering  obedi- 
ence to  an  absolute  Sovereign  support  not  only  the  existing 
power  but  the  principle  of  authority  on  which  that  power  is 
based.  But  in  obeying,  on  grounds  of  their  own,  the  require- 
ments of  a  popular  government,  they  support  it  only  so  far  as  it 
is  a  government,  not  so  far  as  it  is  popular.  On  the  contrary 
the  nature  of  their  obedience  is  such  that  it  neutralizes,  so  far 
as  it  goes,  that  principle  of  self-assertion  on  which  popular 
governments  are  based,  and  which  they  profess  to  inculcate  or 
recommend.  In  proportion  as  the  spirit  of  Christianity  prevails 
under  an  absolute  Monarchy  it  will  render  the  principle  of 
monarchy  powerful  and  stable :  but  in  proportion  as  the  same 
spirit  of  Christianity  prevails  among  the  citizens  of  any  popular 
government  it  will  either  retard  and  modify,  or  altogether  pre- 
vent, their  progress  to  a  more  popular  form  :  or,  if  it  become  ab- 
solutely predominant,  it  will  tend  to  change  the  nature  of  the 
Constitution  so  as  to  retrograde,  gradually  perhaps  and  uncon- 
sciously but  certainly,  towards  monarchy.  It  would  cause 
s])ontaneous  and  peaceful  revolutions  upwards,  such  as  the  world 
has  little  prospect  of  seeing.  Lastly,  so  far  as  a  government  is 
absolute  or  authoritative,  it  is  an  instrument  for  training  all  its 
subjects  to  humility  and  obedience,  which  Christianity  regards  as 
most  important  natural  virtues,  easily  passing  into  Christian 
virtues  of  the  same  names.  But  so  far  as  a  government  is  popu- 
lar, it  is  an  instrument  for  training  all  its  citizens  to  discontent, 
pride,  vanity,  self-assertion,  irreverence,   and   sceptical  indiffe- 


78         OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,    AND     LIBERTY, 

rence  or  infidelity ;  all  which  are  vices  most  contrary  to 
Christianity,  and  the  increase  of  which  the  Christian  must  re- 
gard as  an  enormous  evil. 

When  then  so  many  in  the  West  revile  and  despise  the  Rus- 
sian people  on  account  of  their  devoted  loyalty  and  obedience  to 
an  absolute  Sovereign,  they  revile  and  despise  that  which  is  in 
truth  the  praise  and  glory  and  happiness  of  the  Russians :  and 
when  they  praise  as  virtue  the  spirit  of  pride  and  self-assertion 
which  prevails  among  themselves,  and  vaunt  the  "  free  institu- 
tions "  which  have  arisen  from  this  spirit,  they  are  in  fact  glory- 
ing in  their  own  unhappiness  and  shame. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  consider  what  are  the  sources  of  so 
great  an  error ;  an  error  which  in  the  West  is  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  men  evidently  turbulent  and  wicked,  and  which  too 
often  has  the  sympathy  of  individuals  of  the  higher  classes  even 
among  the  Russians  themselves. 

Now  that  the  defects  and  excesses  incidental  to  absolute 
monarchy  are  as  nothing  compared  with  the  evils  inseparable 
from  the  direct  rule  of  the  nmltitude  is  generally  allowed.  But 
it  is  not  so  clear,  even  to  sensible  men,  that  the  evils  inherent 
in  a  mixed  government  in  virtue  of  its  theory,  are  greater  than 
the  evils  incidental  to  an  absolute  monarchy  in  spite  of  its 
theory  ;  or  that  the  benefits  secured  to  a  people  by  a  mixed  con- 
stitution are  not  practically,  and  upon  the  whole,  greater  than 
those  which  are  secured  by  an  absolute  monarchy.  The  chief 
causes  which  operate  to  deceive  men's  minds  are  the  following  : 

First,  well-meaning  people  living  under  a  more  or  less  popular 
form  of  government,  and  enjoying  those  benefits  which  it  is  the 
nature  of  all  settled  government,  as  such,  to  afi"ord,  are  apt  to 
ascribe  to  the  mixed  character,  or  even  specially  to  the  popular 
character,  of  their  own  Constitution  good  efi'ects  which  in  truth 
are  neither  produced  nor  favoured  by  its  popular  element,  but 
are  lessened  and  thwarted  by  it,  and  would  be  produced  in  a 
higher  degree  by  a  pure  and  consistent  monarchy.  Secondly, 
having  their  ideas  formed  by  their  own  circumstances,  and  being 
naturally  partial  to  themselves,  they  either  do  not  perceive  at  all, 
or  undervalue,  the  pernicious  effect  of  popular  principles  in  train- 
ing a  whole  people  to  lower  and  lower  views  of  faith  and 
obedience,  and  in  encouraging  pride  and  self-assertion.     They 


IN    RELATION    TO    ORTHODOX    CHRISTIANITY.  79 

even  look  with  complacency  on  these  destructive  and  odious 
vices,  as  producing  or  favouring  certain  pagan  virtues,  such  as 
manliness,  truthfulness,  honour,  patriotism,  enterprise,  industry, 
self-respect,  progress,  civilization,  enlightenment,  and  the  like. 
They  do  not  perceive  that  representative,  and  especially  mixed 
representative,  government  is  of  necessity  nothing  else  than  a 
perpetual  round  of  lying,  trickery,  and  overreaching.  On  the 
other  hand  they  either  do  not  see  at  all,  or  undervalue,  the  bene- 
fits commonly  conferred  by  absolute  monarchy  in  favouring  faith 
and  humility.  They  even  look  with  aversion  and  contemjit  on 
these  virtues,  as  tending  to  foster  certain  real  or  supposed  vices, 
such  aa  slavishness,  untruthfulness,  dishonesty,  stationariness, 
barbarism,  ignorance,  superstition,  and  the  like.  Tlurdly, 
setting  an  exaggerated  value  on  worldly  goods,  and  noticing 
that  popular  institutions  (at  least  when  favoured  by  national 
character,)  seem  to  promote  energy,  enterprise,  and  competition, 
and  generally  that  sort  of  social  progress  and  prosperity  which 
the  many  can  best  appreciate,  more  than  absolute  monarchy, 
they  take  this  to  be  a  proof  of  the  superiority  of  popular  insti- 
tutions. Lastly,  they  omit  to  allow  for  the  influence  of  extra- 
neous and  incidental  advantages,  which  in  particular  cases  may 
give  permanence  and  prosperity  to  mixed  or  popular  govern- 
ments, just  as  the  vices  and  cruelties  or  incapacity  of  individual 
rulers  may  in  particular  cases  make  monarchy  unstable  and 
calamitous.  And  thus  they  will  ascribe  to  liberal  institutions 
effects  which  really  belong  to  some  happiness  of  national 
character,  or  of  local  circumstances,  to  the  remains  perhaps  of 
older  monarchical  ideas  and  customs,  and  above  all  to  the  in- 
fluence of  Apostolical  Christianity  arresting,  or  retarding  and 
mitigating,  the  downward  developments  of  liberalism. 

However,  as  there  is  generally  some  foundation  in  truth  even 
for  erroneous  judgments,  when  widely  spread  and  not  confined 
to  the  ignorant  and  vicious,  we  may  admit  that  the  causes 
enumerated  above  do  not  of  themselves  afford  a  sufiicient  ex- 
planation ;  but  that  there  have  been  in  modern  times,  or  are 
still,  in  the  Russian  Government  and  people  some  considerable 
faults  which  account  for  their  not  obtaining  on  the  whole,  even 
from  the  admirers  of  monarchy,  such  respect  or  favour  as  mon- 
archy and  loyalty  deserve  ;  while   the   comparative  absence  in 


80        OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIEXCEj    AND    LIBERTY, 

Russia  of  certain  virtues  which  flourish,  whether  in  reahty  or 
semblance,in  the  West  in  connection  with  Hberal  institutions,  may 
seem  to  be  owing  to  the  pressure  of  despotic  power. 

Certainly  the  Russian  Government  at  the  present  time  is  not 
notorious  in  the  West  for  acts  of  flagrant  injustice  or  cruelty : 
nor  do  sober-minded  people  believe  that  the  Emperor  or  his 
governors  really  flog  Polish  nuns  to  death.  On  the  contrary, 
in  all  things  that  relate  to  material  well-being  and  progress^  the 
Government  is  evidently  enlightened,  paternal,  and  philanthro- 
pic. It  shows  anxiety  to  mitigate  the  evils  of  the  existing 
system  of  serfage,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  its  final  abolition. 
It  corrects  administrative  abuses,  and  introduces  improvements. 
It  encourages  education,  both  spiritual  and  secular.  It  patro- 
nizes art,  science,  and  conrimerce.  It  protects  without  invading 
the  doctrine  and  worship  of  the  dominant  Church,  which  it 
favours  with  moderation ;  while  it  tolerates  the  existence  of 
certain  other  sects,  without  however  allowing  them  to  spread  by 
proselytism.  It  is  active  in  developing  the  internal  resources  of 
the  Empire.  It  protects  life  and  property  by  an  efficient  police, 
and  by  the  regular  administration  of  justice.  And  lastly,  with  an 
immense  force  at  its  command,  it  shows  moderation  in  its  deal- 
ings with  foreign  States,  and  lends  a  powerful  support  to  the 
maintenance  of  existing  treaties,  and  to  the  general  cause  of 
law,  order,  and  religion  throughout  Christendom. 

Yet  with  all  this  it  does  not  command  confidence  and  esteem. 
Apart  from  the  hatred  of  democrats  and  constitution-mongers 
(which  is  simply  honourable  to  it,)  it  is  suspected  and  feared 
even  by  men  of  monarchical  principles.  It  is  suspected  even 
for  its  very  merits.  Men  can  understand  that  people  governing 
themselves  may  have  a  selfish  interest  in  their  own  material  wel- 
fare and  progress  :  but  if  an  absolute  monarch  shows  himself  a 
prudent  administrator  of  his  empire,  this,  they  think,  must  be 
owing  either  to  a  sense  of  duty  towards  God,  or  to  some  ulterior 
motive.  Now  they  do  not  give  the  Russian  Government  at 
present  credit  for  any  sincere  faith  or  zeal  towards  God.  They 
see  that  instead  of  honouring  the  Successors  of  the  Apostles, 
giving  them  free  scope  to  act  within  their  proper  sphere,  and 
listening  reverently  to  their  counsels  or  reproofs,  it  has  broken 
the  power  of  the  Hierarchy,  robbed   it  of  its   possessions,  and 


IN     RELATION    TO    ORTHODOX    CHRISTIANITY.  81 

subjected  its  action  even  in  purely  spiritual  matters  to  a  most 
jealous  and  stifling  control.  And  this  being  so,  tbey  consider 
the  maintenance  of  doctrinal  and  ritual  religion  in  the  statu  quo 
to  be  hypocritical,  partly  from  fear  of  the  people,  and  partly  from 
policy;  and  suspect  that  system  of  good  government  which  pre- 
vails in  lower  matters,  and  which  manifestly  tends  to  develope 
the  strength  and  resources  of  the  Empire,  to  be  pursued  of  set 
purpose,  to  subserve  future  schemes  of  violence  and  ambition. 
But  absolute  power  aiming  after  selfish  and  unjust  ends,  with 
great  means  at  its  disposal,  and  with  profound  hypocrisy  and 
far-seeing  cunning  making  religion  itself  and  good  government 
its  instruments  for  compassing  them,  would  no  doubt  be  suffi- 
ciently odious  and  formidable  to  its  neighbours.  Add  to  this 
the  sight  of  a  great  and  increasing  immorality  among  the 
higher  classes  ;  a  hypocritical  conformity  to  the  dominant 
religion  joined  with  the  most  reckless  scepticism  or  impiety,  the 
basest  adulation  of  the  Government  in  public  joined,  too  often, 
with  the  most  traitorous  and  absurd  liberalism  in  private ;  a 
too  general  corruption  in  all  departments  of  administration  ; 
a  too  general  abuse  of  power  and  influence,  and  oppression  of  the 
weaker  by  the  stronger;  a  general  suppleness  and  duplicity  of 
character,  and  an  absence  of  frankness  and  self-respect.  Add, 
lastly,  the  sight  of  a  Hierarchy  and  Clergy  which  instead 
of  correcting  by  good  counsels,  if  listened  to,  the  mistakes  and 
excesses  of  the  government,  the  police,  and  the  censorship,  or 
illustrating  the  Church  and  raising  the  national  character,  if  not 
listened  to,  by  suffering  patiently  for  truth  and  righteousness, 
lying  prostrate  and  dumb,  despised  by  the  higher  classes  of 
society,  worshipping  with  slavish  adulation  the  hand  that  chains 
and  feeds  them,  and  acquiescing  without  sense  or  consciousness 
in  the  degradation  of  religion  and  of  the  Church  to  be  mere  in- 
struments of  secular  government. 

In  fact,  though  Monarchy  is  in  itself  excellent  and  divine, 
and  far  superior  to  all  spurious  or  less  perfect  forms  of  govern- 
ment, still  human  weakness  and  corruption  is  such,  that  even 
Christian  monarchies  for  the  most  part  minister  to  the  purpose 
of  God  for  the  well-being  of  society  only  by  the  necessity  of 
their  nature,  but  with  a  will  and  spirit  and  purpose  of  their  own 
which  is  not  in  conformity  to  the  Divine  will,  nor  to  the  interest 

G 


82         OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,    AND    LIBERTY, 

of  the  Church  of  Christ.  It  is  only  on  rare  occasions  that 
history  gives  us  a  bright  but  transient  ghnipse  of  what  Christian 
government  ought  to  be,  and  shows  us  an  earthly  Sovereign 
ministering  in  obedient  faith  and  love  to  that  heavenly  Sovereign 
of  whom  he  is  the  image  and  representative.  In  general  the 
Empires  of  this  world  are  by  Divine  sufferance  under  the  in- 
fluence of  him  who  is  called  "  the  Prince  of  this  world,"  follow- 
ing after  glory,  conquest,  power,  interest,  national  progress, 
enlightenment,  and  other  idols.  Not  only  the  old  idolatrous 
heathen  Empires  of  Babylon,  Persia,  Greece,  and  Rome,  which 
successively  trampled  under  foot  the  sanctuaries  of  Jerusalem, 
and  under  which  the  holy  seed  was  scattered  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  but  also  the  continuations  of  those  Empires  or  of  the 
last  of  them,  the  Roman,  even  under  the  Christian  dispensation, 
are  pourtrayed  to  us  in  Holy  Scripture  as  holding  the  seat  and 
authority  of  the  dragon,  that  is  of  Satan,  and  as  being  at 
variance  with  the  Church  of  God  and  with  His  Saints.  And 
they  are  symbolized  by  fierce  and  evil  beasts  rising  out  of  the 
sea,  that  is,  out  of  the  commotions  and  changes  of  the  races  and 
nations  of  mankind.  But  it  belongs  to  goodness  only  and  to 
holiness  to  be  at  unity  with  itself,  so  that  the  greater  can  glorify 
God  for  the  less,  and  the  less  for  the  greater,  and  those  virtues 
and  graces  which  seem  most  contrasted  (as  rule,  courage,  energy, 
are  contrasted  with  obedience,  humility,  patience,)  can  appre- 
ciate and  love  each  other.  Thus  it  is  with  the  Saints  of  the 
Lamb,  and  in  the  order  of  the  Heavenly  Kingdom  ;  as  it  is  also 
with  the  harmonious  varieties  and  contrasts  of  the  material 
Creation.  But  thus  in  the  empire  of  the  dragon  it  is  not.  His 
subordinate  powers  are  at  war  not  only  with  God  but  among 
themselves,  "  hateful  themselves,  and  hating  others."  And  so,  if 
governments,  and  national  characters,  differ  one  from  another, 
then,  so  far  as  they  are  evil,  nations  will  naturally  misappreciate 
and  hate  or  despise  whatever  is  uncongenial  to  their  own  several 
states.  Of  whatever  kind  the  evil  beasts  may  be  which  will 
symbolize  the  different  powers  of  modern  Europe,  the  "  military 
vanity  "  of  France,  the  "  cold  interestedncss  "  of  England,  the 
"  stifling  despotism  ''  of  Russia,  the  "  restless  materialism  "  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  it  is  natural  that  such  evil  beasts 
should  look  askance,  growling  and  snarling,  at  one  another,  and 


IN    RELATION    TO    ORTHODOX   CHRISTIANITY.  83 

from  time  to  time  claw,  and  bite,  and  roar  in  open  conflict.  In 
one  thing  only  they  will  be  agreed,  that  is,  in  dislike  of  the  doc- 
trine and  discipline  of  the  Gospel,  and  in  a  disposition  one  way 
or  another  to  thwart  and  enfeeble  the  imvard  Church. 

But  we  need  not  dwell  on  this  dark  side  of  things.  We  may 
remember  that  there  is  another  and  a  better  point  of  view  from 
which  we  may  regard  governments  so  far  as  they  are  governments, 
and  the  rulers  and  subjects  or  citizens  of  each  so  far  as  they 
are  men,  who  may  be  well-disposed  in  themselves,  and  may  be  living 
under  such  circumstances  as  excuse  or  extenuate  their  faults 
and  enhance  their  virtues.  Thus  the  appearance  in  Englishmen  of 
a  spirit  of  orthodoxy,  of  loyalty  and  obedience  to  authority,  and, 
more  generally,  of  religious  reverence,  sober-mindedness  and 
humility,  ought  to  be  particularly  admirable  and  attractive  to 
the  eyes  of  a  Russian,  inasmuch  as  he  must  know  how  very  un- 
favourable to  the  production  of  such  virtues  ai'c  the  circum- 
stances of  England  :  much  more,  if  the  same  virtues  should  be 
discernible  in  American  republicans.  And  in  like  manner  many 
habits  of  thought  and  speech  and  conduct  which  would  be  most 
culpable  in  a  Russian  Christian,  or  in  a  Russian  subject,  would  be 
viewed  in  Englishmen  or  Americans  by  candid  and  charitable 
Russians  only  as  slight  and  venial  defects  :  for  instance,  the  habit 
of  publishing  idly  and  mischievously  real  faults  or  vices  of  their 
temporal  and  spiritual  Heads.  On  the  other  hand  the  appear- 
ance in  Russians  of  sincerity  and  fearlessness  in  the  cause  of 
truth  and  righteousness,  with  a  noble  disregard  of  worldly  con- 
sequences, ought  to  seem  particularly  admirable  and  attractive  to 
Englishmenor  Americans,  inasmuch  as  they  will  consider  the  at- 
mosphere of  Russia  to  be  peculiarly  unfavourable  for  such  virtues. 

In  a  certain  sense,  no  doubt,  all  governments  depend  on 
public  opinion,  feeling,  and  custom,  and  must  take  their  direc- 
tion from  it.  And  so,  it  is  quite  possible  under  a  monarchy, 
no  less  than  under  a  republic,  for  any  evil  to  have  gone  so  far 
that  it  is  beyond  the  power  of  the  government  to  correct  it. 
Henry  VIII.  or  Queen  Elizabeth,  for  instance,  if  they  could 
return  to  life  in  England  at  the  present  day  to  reign  again  as 
despots,  and  as  Heads  or  Supreme  Governors  of  the  Church, 
would  be  utterly  unable  to  dispossess  those  heresies  which  they  in 
the  sixteenth  century  forced  upon  a  passive  or  reluctant  nation. 


84        OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE    AND    LIBERTY, 

Still,  speaking  generally  and  upon  the  whole,  absolute  monarchy 
has  this  among  its  other  advantages  that,  if  anything  has  gone 
wrong,  the  evil  is  much  more  capable  of  correction  than  uuder  a 
popular  form  of  government.  Uuder  the  latter  there  can  be  no 
correction  (though  of  course  good  men  should  labour  for  it,)  un- 
less the  mind  and  will  of  the  people,  of  the  electoral  and  repre- 
sentative classes,  or  the  majority  of  them,  be  informed  and 
persuaded,  and  the  course  of  the  whole  body  forced  backwards, 
which  is  all  but  impossible  :  for  the  many  are  always  incompe- 
tent or  evil ;  and  a  whole  people  can  scarcely  repent.  But 
under  a  monarchy  the  error  or  fault  is  in  general  only  that  of 
one  man,  or  of  a  few ;  or  at  the  worst  it  is  only  a  system  and 
tradition  of  policy  the  maintenance  of  which  (like  its  first  intro- 
duction,) rests  with  one  man  or  with  a  few.  And  for  the  cor- 
rection of  such  faults  it  needs  only  that  the  mind  of  the 
Sovereign  himself  or  of  a  few  of  his  chief  servants  should  be 
influenced. 

It  cannot  be  too  constantly  borne  in  mind  by  subjects,  that 
the  character  of  their  rulers,  and  that  of  the  government  under 
which  they  are  to  live,  will  depend  mainly  upon  their  own. 
Nothing  can  be  more  false  than  to  imagine  that  subjects  under 
an  absolute  Monarchy  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  obey  simply 
and  mechanically,  like  slaves  or  cattle.  This  is  indeed  the  obe- 
dience which  is  exacted  by  despotism  and  tyranny,  when  the 
particular  appetite  or  caprice  of  the  master  is  his  only  law.  But 
the  theory  of  absolute  monarchy,  of  true  government,  as  such, 
is  very  different.  It  requires  of  the  ruler  that  he  govern  not 
arbitrarily  and  irresponsibly,  but  as  the  servant  of  God,  with  wis- 
dom, virtue,  and  religion  :  and  of  the  subjects  it  requires  that 
they  render  not  a  blind  and  indiscriminating,  but  an  intelligent, 
virtuous,  and  religious  obedience.  If  the  Sovereign  be  ever  so 
perfect,  but  the  people  are  rebellious,  or  vicious,  or  brutishly  stu- 
pid and  apathetic,  he  cannot,  in  the  nature  of  things,  reign  over 
them  as  a  Christian  Khig,  but  must  deal  with  them,  if  he  has 
the  power,  in  some  other  way.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  Sove- 
reign, as  a  man,  chanced  to  be  ever  so  vicious,  seeking  to  rule 
like  a  despot  or  a  tyrant,  or  ever  so  incompetent,  but  his  sub- 
jects, all  of  them  or  the  majority,  were  virtuous,  religious,  and 
intelligent,  it  is   evident  that  even  the  vicious  Sovereign  would 


IN    RELATION    TO    ORTHODOX    CHRISTIANITY.  85 

be  constrained  to  govern  well,  and  the  incompetent  enabled  to 
govern    wisely.     But   these  extreme  cases  of  total  inaptitude, 
either  in  subjects  or  rulers,  are  scarcely  likely  to  occur :  it  is  in 
the  more  mixed  and  ordinary  cases,  where  the  Sovereign,  if  good, 
is  yet  not  without  his  faults  and  defects,  or,  if  bad,  is  not  inca- 
pable of  being  made  worse  or  better,  that  the  vast  responsibility 
incumbent  on  subjects,  especially  on  such  as  are  in  the  higher 
stations,  and  the  vast  importance  of  true  loyalty  is  most  seen. 
If,  on   the  one  hand,  for  any  faults  or  excesses  of  their  ruler 
they  refuse  due  obedience,  foment  a  spirit  of  resistance  and  dis- 
order, or  even  actually  rebel,  and  risk  civil  war,  the  mischief  and 
the  wickedness  are  plain,  and  need  not  that  we  should  dwell  upon 
them.     But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  render  an  undue  obedi- 
ence, the  obedience  of  evil  or  cowardly   men,  or  of  stupid  and 
passive  slaves,  the  mischief  to  society  will  be  hardly  less.     Mis- 
government  under  bad  rulers  will  be  facilitated  and  exaggerated  ; 
and  the  faults  and  defects  of  well-intentioned   rulers  will    be 
magnified    and    perpetuated,    instead    of   admitting   correction. 
Not  only  is  it  the  moral  and  rehgious  duty  of  all  men  to  prefer 
the  higher  to  the  lower  authority  if  anything  wrong  is  com- 
manded by  this  latter,  and  to  obey  God  rather  than  man,  but, 
even  as  regards  the  earthly  Sovereign,  true  affection,  true  loyalty, 
true  obedience   requires  of  subjects  quite  as  much   that  they 
should  remonstrate  against    and,  it  may  be,  disobey  what  is 
mistakenly,  viciously,  or  irreligiously  commanded,  as  that  they 
should  obey  in  executing  what  is  wisely,  virtuously,  and  religi- 
ously commanded.     The  subject  or  servant  who  from  being  evil 
himself,  or  from  fear  or  interest,  ministers   to  a  bad  Monarch, 
or  to  an  erring  Monarch,  for  evil,  who  praises  to  him  evil  men 
or   evil  measures,  or  is  silent  while  others  praise  them,   who 
neglects    to  declare   on    proper   occasions  what   is   truth,   and 
justice,   and    duty,    or   to   remonstrate    against   evil,  who  will 
not  risk  by  refusing  to  be  an  instrument  of  evil  loss  of  favour, 
honour,  rank,  wealth,  power,  or  life  itself,  is   a  traitor  no  less 
than  if  he  joined  or  formed  a  conspiracy,  or   publicly  slandered 
his  Sovereign,  or  purposely  gave  him   bad  counsel  to  his  hurt, 
or  revealed  his  secrets,  or  betrayed   his  troops  or   fortresses  to 
the  enemy,  or  fled  through  cowardice  from  the  field  of  battle. 
And,  as  regards  society  at  large,  he   who  from  fear  of  worldly 


86        OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,    AND    LIBERTY, 

consequences,  or  from  motives  of  interest,  praises  or  defends 
any  excesses  or  evil  acts  of  tyrants  or  their  ministers,  or  (still 
more,)  any  occasional  faults  or  errors  of  such  monarchs  as  are 
on  the  whole  well-intentioned,  or  who  refrains  from  blaming 
theui  on  proper  occasions,  is  by  his  vicious  and  mischievous  adu- 
lation a  corrupter  of  his  fellow-subjects,  and  a  subverter  of  his 
country,  and  of  the  Throne,  no  less  than  if  he  refrained  from 
praising  on  fit  occasion,  or  even  maliciously  calumniated  and 
misrepresented,  the  virtuous  and  beneficent  and  religious  acts  of 
a  good  government. 

True  loyalty  and  obedience  in  subjects  is  so  far  from  being 
inconsistent  with  liberty,  that  without  liberty  it  cannot  exist. 
For  there  is  such  a  thing  also  as  true  liberty,  which  is  a  privilege, 
a  hajipiness,  and  a  reward,  no  less  than  true  obedience  and  true 
authority,  the  rendering  and  exercising  of  which  are  duties.  The 
world  is  not  wholly  wrong  when  it  abhors  something  which  it 
calls  "  slavery,"  and  aspires  after  something  which  it  calls 
"liberty;'^  though,  being  evil,  it  can  never  escape  the  one  or 
attain  the  other,  nor  comprehend  what  either  of  them  really  are. 
The  true  slavery  is  for  a  will  naturally  free  to  be  subjected  by 
force  to  some  other  will  external  and  contrary  to  itself;  as  when 
the  inner  man,  that  is,  the  reason  or  conscience,  is  overcome  by 
particular  passions  or  habits,  or  when  bad  men,  or  imperfect, 
are  constrained  by  fear  or  interest  to  obey  any  law  or  will  con- 
trary to  their  own.  True  liberty  in  the  creature  is,  primarily, 
to  be  in  union  with  his  supreme  Creator  and  Ruler,  so  as  to 
love  and  do  His  will  spontaneously :  secondarily,  to  be  at  peace 
with  himself,  so  that  all  particular  appetites  and  passions  either 
actually  concur  with  the  inner  will,  that  is,  with  reason  and 
conscience  and  good  habit,  or  obey  it  without  reluctance.  And 
as  for  political  liberty,  that  subject  or  citizen  is  iv\\\y  free  whose 
w'\\\  coincides  with  the  will  of  the  existing  government,  so  far  as 
it  is  truly  government.  Not  he  who  has  power  to  rebel  or  dis- 
obey with  impunity ;  nor  he  whose  will  happens  to  coincide 
with  any  tyrannical  caprice  or  erring  will  of  a  particular  monarch 
or  republic ;  but  he  whose  will  concurs  with  the  existing  earthly 
government,  so  far  as  the  will  of  that  government  itself  concurs 
with  the  supreme  government  of  God.  The  earthly  ruler,  so 
far  as  he  has  any   true  authority,  can  have  it  only  as  the  slave 


IN    RELATION    TO    ORTHODOX    CHRISTIANITY.  o7 

and  servant  or  minister  of  the  Lord  :  and  the  earthly  subject, 
SO  far  as  he  has  auy  true  Hberty,  can  have  it  ouly  as  the  freeman 
of  the  Lord.  The  subject  for  the  Lord's  sake  obeys  and  vene- 
rates his  earthly  Sovereign  (so  far  as  he  is  really  a  Sovereign,) 
willingly,  not  of  constraint ;  as  a  free  man,  not  as  a  slave  or 
machine  ;  of  love,  not  of  fear ;  or  if  of  fear  also,  still  this  is  not 
an  abject  but  a  religious  fear,  on  account  of  the  image  of  the 
Divine  authority  which  he  bears.  But  in  proportion  as  any 
ruler  or  government  demands  of  the  subject  any  irreligious,  or 
unjust  or  unfitting  obedience,  or  compliance,  or  accord,  he 
whose  habit  and  will  is  in  unison  with  the  will  of  God  and  with 
true  government,  and  at  variance  with  the  erring  will  of  the  in- 
dividual earthly  tyrant,  or  of  the  imperfect  government,  is  free. 
He  will  do  the  will  of  God,  which  is  also  his  own  will,  without 
looking  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left :  he  will  constantly  speak 
the  truth,  and  boldly  rebuke  vice  and  injustice  :  he  will  do  that 
which  all  government  must  be  supposed,  from  its  very  nature, 
to  will  and  command,  even  though  the  individual  ruler  may  say 
that  he  wills  something  else :  and  if  he  cannot  persuade  the 
ruler,  nor  prevent  or  correct  evil,  he  will  for  God's  sake  even 
more  willingly  and  cheerfully  suflfer  unjust  anger,  punishment, 
or  death,  than  he  would  for  his  own  gratification  have  accepted 
honour  or  rewards.  He  will  be  really  free  then  both  when  he 
obeys  just  commands,  and  (more  manifestly)  when  he  disobeys 
what  are  unjust ;  and  lastly  he  will  be  free,  and  most  free, 
when  he  suffers  ;  because,  first,  he  will  suffer  nothing  contrary 
to  his  own  will,  (for  his  will  is  to  suffer  in  obedience  to  the  will 
of  God;)  and  then,  further,  because  by  suflFering  he  shows  his 
own  will  to  be  more  free  and  stronger  than  the  greatest  powers 
of  this  world,  and  triumphs  over  them  openly  in  the  eyes  of  all 
those  who  are  capable  of  understanding  and  admiring  virtue, 
and  of  being  taught  to  imitate  it. 

Authority  then.  Obedience,  and  Liberty,  having  all  three  their 
sources  in  Religion,  and  so  far  as  they  come  to  be  disjoined  from 
religion  being  necessarily  perverted  and  corrupted,  it  is  mani- 
fest how  much  must  depend  in  every  Christian  nation  upon  the 
life  and  purity  of  religion,  and  upon  the  spirit  and  zeal  of  its 
Hierarchy  and  Clergy.  Sent  at  the  beginning  to  teach  and 
Baptize  all  nations,  and  to   bear  the  name  of  Christ  before 


88        OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,    AND    LIBERTY, 

Kings  and  Governors,  to  whom  they  rendered  a  perfect  obedi- 
ence in  temporal  things,  but  whose  will  they  utterly  disregarded 
in  matters  of  religion,  the  Apostles  by  their  teaching  and  suf- 
ferings laid  the  foundation  of  that  society  which  was  afterwards 
to  be  called  Christendom,  and  made  Christian  authority.  Chris- 
tian obedience,  and  Christian  liberty,  possible  for  future  gene- 
rations, lie  that  had  been  merely  a  heathen  chieftain  or  tyrant 
before,  with  such  authority  as  it  might  happen,  when  he  received 
the  Faith  and  was  Baptized,  became  for  the  future  a  Christian 
Sovereign  over  brethren,  holding  his  authority  intelligently  of 
God,  and  having  a  Divine  law  by  which  to  exercise  it.  And  the 
people,  who  in  their  state  of  nature  before  had  rendered  such 
obedience  and  arrogated  to  themselves  such  liberty  as  it  hap- 
pened, upon  listening  to  the  Gospel  and  being  Baptized  re- 
ceived, together  with  the  grace  of  God,  a  new  view  of  the  autho- 
rity of  their  Princes  over  them,  and  of  their  own  duty  of 
obedience,  and  of  the  nature  of  true  liberty.  After  their  Bap- 
tism Christian  Princes  had  still  with  them  the  same  Teachers 
who  first  raised  their  power  from  being  merely  natural  to  be 
reasonable  and  religious  to  assist,  instruct,  and  correct  them  in 
all  that  related  to  its  exercise.  And  Christian  peoples  after  their 
Baptism  had  still  with  them  the  same  Teachers  who  first  ennobled 
their  political  obedience  and  liberty,  made  them  compatible  the 
one  with  the  other,  and  raised  them  above  the  state  of  nature, 
to  teach,  rebuke,  and  correct  them  in  their  relations  to  their 
Christian  Governors.  So  then  the  Hierarchy  are  naturally  and 
originally  in  the  place  of  teachers  both  to  the  Sovereign  and  to  the 
people  in  all  Christian  nations  :  and  any  disposition  to  disown  this 
relation,  or  to  displace  the  Hierarchy  from  it,  signifies  neither 
more  nor  less  than  apostacy  from  Christianity. 

Besides  that  it  is  their  mission  and  duty,  the  Clergy  are 
manifestly  fitted  by  their  ofiice,  their  mode  of  life,  their  exclu- 
sion from  secular  aff'airs,  and  other  advantages,  for  being  the 
suggesters  of  motives  both  to  rulers  and  subjects,  the  correctors 
of  any  thing  that  may  be  amiss,  and  the  maintainers  of  har- 
mony between  the  different  functions  of  society,  and  of  a  just 
balance  between  authority  and  liberty.  An  earthly  authority 
inculcating  on  the  people  obedience  to  itself  through  its  sa- 
tellites  and   schoolmasters  would   gain   little   by   the    attempt. 


IN    RELATION    TO    ORTHODOX    CHRISTIANITY.  89 

but  would  be  more  likely  in  tbe  long  run  to  produce  a  spirit  of 
disloyalty ;  both  because  the  teaching  would  be  destitute  of  per- 
suasive authority,  and  because  he  is  naturally  suspected  who 
speaks  much  in  his  own  behalf.  The  very  attempt  to  persuade 
in  him  whose  place  it  is  to  command,  is  significant  of  weakness 
and  apprehension.  But  the  instruction  and  exhortation  of  the 
ministers  of  God,  speaking  in  His  name,  appointed  equally  to 
teach  the  prince  and  the  peasant,  and  independent  of  both, 
while  by  their  character  and  office,  by  their  exclusion  from 
worldly  callings,  and  their  devotion  to  works  of  charity  and 
mercy  and  of  spiritual  consolation,  they  engage  especially  the 
sympathies  of  the  poor,  are  likely  to  have  a  very  different  efiect. 
So  too,  if  any  thing  is  amiss  in  a  ruler,  it  would  not  be  con- 
venient for  the  people  to  see  laymen  rebuking,  correcting,  or 
guiding  their  Sovereign.  It  would  tend  to  his  dishonour  and 
reproach,  to  the  obscuration  of  his  pre-eminence,  and  perhaps 
even  to  absolute  danger.  But  in  listening  to  his  Spiritual  Father, 
who  is  revered  by  all  as  a  minister  of  religion,  but  is  inca- 
pacitated by  his  office  from  aspiring  to  secular  command,  and 
disgraces  himself  if  he  is  forward  to  meddle  with  secular  afi'airs, 
who  is  bound  to  teach  to  all  humility,  loyalty,  and  obedience, 
and  to  set  an  example  of  these  virtues  himself,  a  Sovereign  has 
no  cause  for  jealousy  or  fear,  lest  his  authority  be  weakened  or 
dishonoured.  On  the  contrary  the  giving  and  receiving  of 
counsel,  admonition,  or  reproof,  in  such  a  way  is  graceful,  hon- 
ourable, and  beneficial  both  to  religion  and  to  the  State. 

Human  nature  being  everywhere  prone  to  evil,  and  to  no 
evil  more  than  to  insubordination  and  lawlessness,  it  will  be 
everywhere  the  duty  of  the  Clergy  by  their  teaching  and  ex- 
ample to  inculcate  obedience  and  loyalty.  And  more  especially  in 
popularly-governed  countries,  where  they  may  even  themselves 
be  in  danger  from  the  infection  of  the  democratical  spirit,  they 
should  do  their  utmost  to  remedy  in  some  degree  the  plague  of 
society  by  inculcating  a  spirit  of  sobermindedness,  humility, 
and  obedience,  so  far  as  obedience  may  yet  be  right  or  possible. 
But  under  absolute  governments,  where  they  may  rather  be  in 
danger  of  being  carried  away  with  the  multitude  by  fear  or 
interest  to  an  excessive  and  slavish  adulation,  they  are  bound 
more  especially  to  teach  by  their  words  and  their  examples  the 


90        OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,    AND    LIBERTY, 

difference  between  spurious  and  true,  hypocritical  and  sincere 
loyalty,  between  the  intelligent,  reasonable,  and  religious  obe- 
dience of  the  Christian  subject,  and  the  vicious  or  brutish  sub- 
serviency of  the  concealed  traitor  or  the  slave.  For  it  cannot 
be  expected  that  lay  servants  and  subjects  should  have  the  spirit 
on  proper  occasions  to  decline  compliance,  to  remonstrate,  or 
to  teach  and  correct  erring  Sovereigns,  if  the  Hierarchy  fail  to 
set  them  the  example  :  any  more  than  that  Bishops  and  Priests 
should  navigate  fleets  or  command  armies,  if  they  who  are  sailors 
and  soldiers  by  profession  fail  to  do  it.  And  if  unhappily  the 
Prince,  and  the  great  men,  and  the  people  in  any  State  all  fail 
of  their  duty,  or  if  the  Prince  and  the  great  men  wrong  the 
poor,  or  religion,  the  Clergy  are  the  only  representatives  of 
truth,  justice,  and  mercy,  left  upon  earth  :  and  if  they  fail  too, 
the  evil  is  indeed  irremediable. 

If  in  any  countries  the  Clergy  have  sought  to  carry  religion 
beyond  its  just  limits,  seeking  to  subject  Kings  and  Emperors 
to  a  direct  or  indirect  temporal  Supremacy,  or  in  a  lower  sphere 
have  assisted  domestic  factions  and  rebellions  of  traitors  or 
democrats,  or  the  arms  of  foreign  enemies,  such  ministers  of 
religion  have  plainly  departed  from  the  precepts  and  example 
of  the  Apostles  Paul  and  Peter,  and  of  the  Martyrs,  who  honoured 
and  obeyed  the  heathen  Caesars  from  Nero  to  Diocletian,  have 
incapacitated  themselves  from  teaching  consistently  or  efficiently 
obedience  and  loyalty,  and  have  prepared  the  way  for  future  in- 
roads of  the  temporal  power  upon  the  spiritual,  and  for  the  law- 
less insurrection  of  democracy  against  both.  But  of  such  an 
excess  we  need  say  little,  as  there  is  nothing  in  the  present 
circumstances  of  the  world  to  suggest  the  probability  of  its  oc- 
currence. And  for  the  past,  whatever  may  have  been  the  case 
in  the  West,  the  Clergy  of  the  Eastern  Church  have  never  given 
Princes  a.ny  just  ground  for  jealousy  or  suspicion.  On  the  other 
hand  if  the  secular  power,  as  has  been  too  common,  should 
anywhere  have  invaded  the  spiritual,  carrying  political  govern- 
ment beyond  its  just  limits,  and  seeking  to  subject  the  Succes- 
sors of  the  Apostles  and  their  Churches  to  a  direct  or  indirect 
State  Supremacy,  and  the  Clergy  have  not  had  the  spirit  and  wis- 
dom to  resist  such  invasion,  and  to  maintain  their  proper  relation 
towards  the  Kings  and  nations  which  they  originally  converted 


IN    RELATION    TO    ORTHODOX    CHRISTIANITY.  91 

and  Baptized^  the  secular  ruler  in  this  case  has  simply  impaired 
or  destroyed  religion  by  attempting  to  reduce  that  which  is 
spiritual  under  his  own  control  :  he  has  degraded  the  Hierarchy 
without  gaining  any  real  advantage  to  himself :  on  the  contrary, 
he  has  sapped  the  basis  of  his  own  authority,  and  prepared  the 
way  for  the  Nobility  and  for  the  people  first  to  follow  him  (as 
they  followed  in  England  Queen  Elizabeth,)  into  vice  and  irre- 
ligion,  and  then,  by  a  just  retribution,  perhaps  to  murder  him, 
(as  the  English  murdered  Charles  the  First,)  or  to  drive  him 
and  his  family  from  the  throne,  (as  the  English  drove  out  James 
IT.  and  his  posterity,)  and  establish  a  democratical  anarchy 
both  political  and  religious.  And  in  the  same  case  the  Hierarchy 
which  submits  to  such  encroachments  are  plainly  no  successors 
in  spirit  of  those  Apostles  and  Martyrs  who  so  undauntedly 
asserted  their  own  mission  to  teach  the  world  against  all  the  au- 
thority of  the  Roman  Emperors,  from  Nero  to  Diocletian,  who  by 
their  patience  in  suflfering  m  three  hundred  years  overthrew  the 
estabhshed  worship  of  idols,  and  founded  and  cemented  with 
their  blood  the  new  order  of  Christian  society,  ecclesiastical  and 
political.  By  their  subserviency  and  timidity  they  gain  no  real 
advantage  either  for  themselves  or  for  the  people ;  nor  do  any 
real  service,  or  show  any  real  fidelity  or  loyalty,  to  the  secular 
Government.  Rather  they  degrade  themselves,  their  ofiice,  and 
religion  ;  they  sell  the  souls  of  the  poor ;  they  abandon  the  flock 
of  Christ  unfed  and  unfolded  to  the  wolves  of  this  world ;  they 
prepare  destruction  instead  of  security  for  that  King  of  Moab 
whom,  like  Balaam,  they  serve  for  gain ;  and  they  are  in  danger 
of  being  brought  with  Balaam  and  Judas  to  a  fearful  account  at 
the  end.  As  for  such  a  Hierarchy  to  advise  and  correct  their 
Sovereign  in  his  political  government,  to  support  the  throne  in 
times  of  weakness  or  trouble,  to  defend  the  cause  of  the  poor,  to 
maintain  the  balance  between  the  conflicting  tendencies  of  out- 
ward authority  and  outward  licence,  to  prevent,  by  the  admix- 
ture of  a  spiritual  element  and  the  presence  of  a  spiritual  check, 
absolute  monarchy  from  becoming  despotism  or  tyranny,  obedi- 
ence and  loyalty  from  becoming  vicious  and  slavish  subservience, 
reasonable  and  religious  liberty  from  passing  into  a  cloke  of 
licentiousness, — these  offices  would  manifestly  be  impossible. 
If  then  any  Christian  Clergy  would  preserve  in  due  propor- 


92         OF    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,    AND    LIBERTY, 

tion  the  mutual  relations  of  Church  and  State,  and  so  be  capable 
of  teaching  Christian  Princes  and  peoples  in  lesser  matters,  they 
have  only  one  thing  to  do ;  (the  lesson  is  brief  and  simple,  but 
the  practice  is  no  light  matter;)  to  study  to  have  the  same  spirit 
and  to  act  in  the  same  way  towards  temporal  Sovereigns  now 
as  the  Apostles  and  their  successors  acted  during  the  first  four 
ages  of  Christianity;  with  the  same  unsullied  and  immoveable 
loyalty  in  worldly  things,  and  with  the  same  unmistakeable  atti- 
tude of  teachers  and  independent  governors  in  spiritual  things  ; 
rendering  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  but  exacting 
also  from  Caesar  for  God  the  things  that  are  God's. 

Lastly,  if  any  one  desire  to  see  more  in  detail  some  rule  or 
pattern  for  temporal  Sovereignty  itself,  which  in  its  proper 
sphere  is  supreme,  over  Clergy  no  less  than  over  laity,  and  is  re- 
sponsible to  God  alone,  he  may  find  it  in  the  Hundred-and-first 
Psalm,  (LXX.  p.)  of  which  the  following  is  an  amplification:  — 

The  Meditation  of  a  Christian  Sovereign : 

"My  song,  my  meditation,  shall  be  of  the  duties  of  my 
station ;  of  mercy  and  judgment :  first,  of  mercy,  that  is,  of 
tender  paternal  care  for  the  welfare,  spiritual,  moral,  and  tem- 
poral, of  all  my  subjects;  and  then  also  of  judgment,  that  is,  of 
the  administration  of  true  justice  between  man  and  man,  of  the 
restraint  of  wickedness  and  vice,  and  the  punishment  of  evil- 
doers, both  for  their  own  correction,  and  for  the  advantage  of 
society.  Unto  Thee,  0  Lord,  will  I  sing.  Unto  Thee  will  I 
lift  up  my  heart  in  my  meditation.  I  will  not  direct  my  inten- 
tion in  ruling  to  any  secondary  end.  I  will  not  look  to  the 
tempter,  though  he  may  offer  me  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  : 
nor  to  the  idols  of  ambition,  glory,  public  opinion,  patriotism, 
civilization,  enlightenment,  progress  :  nor  to  any  selfish  motives 
of  pleasure,  passion,  or  ease.  But  I  will  offer  my  thoughts,  my 
motives,  my  designs,  my  actions,  my  meditations,  my  prayers, 
with  fear  and  love  unto  Thee,  0  Lord  :  for  Thou  art  my  King, 
and  my  God  ;  and  I  am  Thy  servant.  For  Thy  sake  alone,  and 
because  it  is  Thy  will,  I  will  endeavour,  with  Thy  help,  to  rule 
my  fellow-men,  my  brethren,  whom  otherwise  I  would  prefer  to 
serve.  So  shall  I  have  understanding  in  the  way  of  godliness. 
O  let  me  have  understanding  in  the  way  of  godliness !     0  give 


IN    RELATION    TO    ORTHODOX   CHRISTIANITY.  93 

me  of  Thy  heavenly  wisdom,  that  I  may  understand  how  to 
govern  well  !  wisdom,  not  so  much  for  the  lower  ends  and  de- 
tails of  government,  as  for  the  higher :  understanding  in  the 
way  of  godliness ;  that  is,  that  I  may  think  and  feel  and  believe 
rightly  concerning  the  Orthodox  and  Catholic  Faith,  concerning 
the  unity  and  authority  of  Thy  holy  Catholic  aud  Apostolic 
Church,  concerning  the  due  relation  of  Kings  to  the  Christian 
Hierarchy,  and  of  the  Hierarchy  to  Kings  :  and  that  I  may 
govern  well,  so  as  to  defend  and  assist  the  holy  Church,  and 
promote  her  union  within  herself,  her  spiritual  efficiency  in 
teaching,  disciplining,  or  reclaiming  the  Christian  people,  and 
her  extension  among  the  nations  which  have  not  yet  learned 
Christ.  For  Thou  hast  bidden  rulers  also  as  well  as  others 
to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness,  and 
hast  promised  to  as  many  as  do  thus  that  all  other  things  which 
are  necessary  either  for  themselves  or  for  their  subjects  shall  be 
added  unto  them.  When  wilt  Thou  come  unto  me  ?  This  is 
my  motive,  this  is  my  desire,  this  is  my  end  and  hope  in  all 
that  I  do,  that  by  governing  Thy  people  in  obedience  to  Thy 
will,  for  their  good,  and  to  Thy  glory,  I  may  obtain,  in  common 
with  the  meanest  of  them,  the  salvation  of  my  own  soul :  that  I 
may  be  accepted  by  Thee  the  King  of  kings,  by  Thee  Who  being 
Maker  and  Lord  of  all  didst  empty  Thyself  of  Thy  glory,  and 
condescend  to  become  an  outcast  upon  earth,  and  a  servant  of 
servants  for  my  sake,  making  for  ever  afterwards  humility  and 
poverty  and  suffering  precious,  but  pride  and  vain-glory  con- 
temptible and  miserable.  For  Thou  hast  said,  '  If  a  man  love 
me,  he  will  keep  my  words ;  and  my  Father  will  love  him, 
and  we  will  come  unto  him,  and  make  our  abode  with  him.' 
Make  me,  0  Lord,  to  love  Thee !  Help  me,  that  I  may  keep 
Thy  words  !  Yea,  I  will  keep  them  with  my  whole  heart.  I 
see  the  vanity  of  worldly  things  :  I  see  the  difficulties  and  dan- 
gers of  my  exaltation :  I  am  weary  of  a  life  so  unsuitable  in  its 
outward  circumstances  for  my  weakness  and  sinfulness,  so  like 
to  the  life  of  Herod,  of  Pilate,  of  Csesar,  so  unlike  the  life  on 
earth  of  the  true  King  of  Israel.  When  shall  it  be  over  ?  that  is, 
so  that  it  be  over  well  and  happily  ?  When  wilt  Thou  come 
unto  me  ?  0  come  unto  me  day  by  day  by  Thy  grace,  to  assist 
and  support  and  enable  me  !  and  give  me  at  the  end  some  part. 


94         OF   CIVIL    GOVERNMENT,    OBEDIENCE,   AND    LIBERTY, 

however  small,  with  the  poor  who  in  this  life  have  received  with 
Lazarus  and  with  Thee  evil  things.  Shut  not  up  my  soul  with 
the  sinners  :  nor  with  those  rich  men  who  have  their  portion  in 
this  life :  nor  with  those  great  men  of  the  earth  who  on  account 
of  their  greatness  shall  be  mightily  tormented  !  And  what  way 
shall  I  take  to  obtain  my  desire  ?  Even  this  :  I  will  walk  in  my 
house  with  a  perfect  heart,  or  in  innocency  of  my  heart.  My 
walk,  that  is,  my  steps,  the  course  and  conduct  of  my  life,  in  my 
family,  in  my  court,  and  in  my  kingdom,  shall  be  ordered  by 
the  pure  and  single  motive  of  the  fear  and  love  of  God.  My 
heart  shall  be  whole  with  Him,  not  divided  :  my  conscience 
clear  and  open  towards  Him.  I  will  not  set  before  my  eyes,  that 
is,  by  desire  or  purpose,  any  unrighteous  thing,  as  any  unjust 
war,  any  wrong  to  the  Church,  oppression  of  subjects,  gratifica- 
tion of  any  sinful  lust,  or  of  anger,  or  revenge,  or  pride.  On 
the  contrary  I  will  strive  more  and  more  to  hate  such  sins  of 
unfaithfulness,  with  all  tendencies  to  them,  and  all  remains  of 
them,  both  in  myself  and  in  others.  Yea,  0  Lord,  I  do  hate 
them  :  I  hate  the  sins  of  impiety,  heresy,  schism,  sacrilege,  pro- 
faneness,  violence,  murder,  adultery,  uncleanness,  robbery, 
fraud,  slander,  covetousness,  and  such  like.  A  crooked  and 
perverse  heart,  a  heart  that  lifts  not  up  itself  straight  to  Thee, 
but  turns  aside  after  lusts  and  passions,  and  vanities,  and  is 
hypocritical  or  inconsistent  in  Thy  service,  shall  not  cleave  to 
me  :  neither  within  my  own  breast :  nor  shall  such  a  heart  of 
any  other  man  adhere  to  mine  by  friendship  or  favour.  Bad 
men  shall  go  out  quickly  from  my  presence,  and  shall  not  re- 
turn to  it.  They  shall  be  forgotten  by  me.  They  shall  shrink 
away  from  me  of  themselves,  and  shun  me  :  or,  if  they  presume, 
I  will  not  favour  nor  promote  nor  employ  them,  nor  so  much  as 
look  upon  them,  or  know  them.  They  shall  be  for  me  as  if  they 
were  not.  If  any  one  comes  to  me  with  secret  accusations 
against  his  neighbour,  with  suspicions,  and  insinuations,  instead 
of  rewarding  him,  or  listening  to  him,  I  will  drive  him  from  my 
presence,  from  the  palace,  from  the  court,  and  from  all  honours 
and  trusts.  Neither  they  that  have  a  proud  and  haughty  eye, 
be  they  ever  so  great  or  noble,  nor  they  that  have  a  covetous 
soul,  be  they  ever  so  rich  or  serviceable,  shall  sit  before  me  or  eat 
at  my  table.     But  my  eyes  shall  seek  out  and  note  such  as  ai-e 


IN    RELATION    TO   ORTHODOX    CHRISTIANITY.  95 

faithful  and  devout  Christians  within  my  dominions,  that  I  may 
have  them  about  my  person,  to  be  with  me.  The  most  eminent 
for  faith  and  hohness  shall  be  my  Spiritual  Fathers,  my  advisers, 
and  my  friends.  They  that  lead  blameless  lives  shall  be  my 
servants,  my  Officers,  my  Judges,  my  Captains,  my  Governors, 
my  Councillors.  None  shall  dwell  in  my  house  who  show 
haughtiness  or  rudeness  to  inferiors,  or  to  the  poor.  None 
shall  prosper  before  me  who  tell  lies,  or  who  do  not  strictly  and 
openly  speak  the  truth.  Him  who  tells  me  what  he  sees  amiss 
in  me  I  will  trust  and  honour ;  but  him  that  flatters  me,  or  that 
palliates  wickedness,  or  commends  to  me  evil  men,  I  will  punish 
as  though  he  insulted  me  to  my  face.  My  first  thought  shall 
ever  be  how  to  restrain  all  impiety,  heresy,  injustice,  violence, 
and  immorality  :  I  will  cut  off  at  once,  without  delay,  all  authors 
and  ringleaders  of  open  wickedness :  and  labour,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, to  extirpate  all  incorrigible  evil  doers  from  the  Christian 
Empire  and  Church,  which  is  the  City  of  the  Lord." 

Such  is  the  sense  of  the  Psalm  which  was  copied  out  and  sent 
by  one  of  the  early  Russian  Metropolitans,  Nicephorus,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  to  the  Grand  Prince  Vladimir 
Monomachus,  as  a  compendious  instruction  in  his  duties,  with 
an  exhortation  to  him  to  get  it  by  heart,  to  recite  it  fre- 
quently, to  meditate  on  it,  and  to  fashion  his  government  ac- 
cordingly. If  any  one  would  be  a  worthy  successor  of  Mono- 
machus, he  may  do  the  same  now. 


DISSERTATION  VII. 

REFLECTIONS    ON    THE    RIGHT    METHOD     OF     CONDUCTING    RELI- 
GIOUS   CONTROVERSY. 

Christians  being  unhappily  at  variance,  religious  discussions 
and  controversies  abound,  and  are  generally  both  idle  and  per- 
nicious. The  soul  that  loves  and  seeks  truth  shrinks  from  oral 
discussion,  and  scarcely  less  from  the  perusal  of  printed  contro- 
versy ;  or  if  we  are  sometimes  obliged  to  consult  controversial 
Divinity,  we  labour  through  volumes  with  little  other  benefit 
than  the  indirect  one  of  ascertaining  what  facts  against  himself 
are  admitted,  and  what  ai'guments  against  himself  are  dissembled, 
by  the  writer. 

Still,  supposing  that  people  may  sometimes  be  so  minded 
that  discussion  may  profitably  be  offered  and  accepted,  it  is 
worth  while  to  consider  by  what  rules  one  ought  to  guide  one's 
self  in  undertaking  and  conducting  it. 

Towards  such  a  consideration  the  following  suggestions  may 
be  found  useful :     Intellectually, 

I.  We  should  be  discreet  enough  neither  to  move  nor  con- 
tinue with  any  man  a  disquisition  for  which  he  has  not  the 
requisite  principles,  capacity,  knowledge,  or  dispositions. 

II.  We  should  not  seek  to  demonstrate  nor  to  refute  demon- 
strativelij  first  principles,  or  what  are  assumed  as  such  on  either 
side :  nor  assume  to  reason  as  principals,  when  we  are  only  indi- 
viduals and  inferiors  ;  nor  to  reason  as  free  beyond  those  limits 
within  which  our  first  principles,  and  the  Doctrinal  Authority 
by  which  we  are  bound,  leave  us  really  free. 

III.  We  should  never  lose  sight  of  the  distinction  existing 
between  any  system,  or  position,  or  organized  community  in 
itself  and  the  individual  who  may  be  connected  with  it,  and  who 


ON   THE  RIGHT  METHOD  OF  CONDUCTING  CONTROVERSY.       97 

may  identify  himself  with  it.  What  is  true  against  a  system  seen 
from  a  higher  point  of  view  may  be  most  false  and  unjust  against 
the  individual,  and  against  the  system  as  he  seems  to  himself  to 
see  it,  being  at  a  lower  point  of  view :  nay,  the  accusation  may 
not  be  even  intelHgible  to  him.  And  that  blame  which  is  only  too 
just  against  individual  members,  rulers,  numerical  majorities, 
and  even  whole  generations  and  nations  belonging  to  any  reli- 
gious system  or  Church,  and  which  will  so  inevitably  seem 
to  attach  to  the  system  in  itself,  may,  after  all,  be  mere  calumny 
when  so  applied,  and  may  be  seen  to  be  mere  calunmy  by 
those  who  are  so  placed  as  to  regard  the  system  from  a  higher 
point  of  view. 

IV.  We  should  take  all  possible  pains  to  understand  the 
feelings,  habits,  modes  of  thought,  and  definitions  of  words  with 
which  we  have  to  deal  before  we  judge,  and  still  more  before  we 
openly  disallow  and  attack  them. 

V.  We  must  allow  for  the  powerful  influence  of  first  principles, 
position,  and  habits,  upon  particular  thoughts  and  reasonings  ; 
and  remember  that  it  is  not  enough  in  any  controversy  to  have 
clear  reasoning  and  good  dispositions  on  the  two  sides,  but  that 
there  must  be  also  constant  attention  to  the  subject  and  to  the 
reasoning /or  a  sufficient  space  of  time.     Then,  morally, 

VI.  We  should  always  suppose  our  antagonist  to  be  our  equal, 
or  rather  our  superior ;  and  to  be  seeking  only  truth,  for  his  own 
and  for  our  good.  And  even  if  there  should  be  any  signs  to  the 
contrary,  we  should  either  shut  our  eyes  to  them,  and  give  him 
the  advantage  of  supposing  him  to  be  better  than  he  is ;  or  else, 
if  this  is  impossible,  we  should  desist  from  the  controversy,  and 
deal  with  him  in  another  tone. 

VII.  Whatever  blame  our  antagonist  may  seem  to  merit,  we 
should  never  blame  him  :  for  this  very  fact,  that  he  is  blameable, 
is  a  damage  to  his  argument,  and  an  advantage  (perhaps  beyond 
what  our  cause  merits,)  to  ours.  It  is  enough  therefore  that 
he  exhibits  his  weakness.  For  us  to  blame  or  pursue  him  for 
this  not  only  is  unchristian  and  ungenerous,  but  it  deprives  us  of 
the  superiority  which  we  should  otherwise  obtain  from  his  fault. 

VIII.  On  the  other  hand,  we  should  never  try  to  refute  nor 
absolutely  deny  the  justice  of  any  moral  or  intellectual  blame 
cast  upon  ourselves,  partly   for  reasons   similar  to  those  stated 

H 


98  REFLECTIONS    ON    THE    RIGHT    METHOD 

above  under  the  last  head,  and  partly  because  we  are  mostly 
guilty  more  or  less  of  that  which  is  imputed  to  us,  and 
can  scarcely  defend  ourselves  without  condemning  ourselves. 
Whereas,  even  if  we  were  blameless,  undeserved  blame  should 
be  accepted  as  a  spur  to  excellence,  to  make  us  only  so  much 
the  more  humble  and  diligent  to  avoid  all  approach  to  the  defect 
imputed,  and  to  increase  in  the  contrary  virtue. 

The  above  suggestions  intellectual  and  moral  being  premised, 
a  method  shall  now  be  proposed  for  facilitating  and  simplifying 
the  actual  process  of  the  controversy  itself.  It  is  this :  Let 
the  two  parties  by  mutual  agreement  and  hypothesis  change 
sides,  so  far  as  the  outward  conference  is  concerned ;  and  let  each 
propose  to  the  best  of  his  ability  and  knowledge  what  seems  to 
him  to  be  his  opponent's  case.  This  being  done  on  one  side, 
the  statement  made  of  our  case  by  our  opponent  will  appear  to 
us  either  to  be  fair  and  complete,  and  as  strong  as  we  could 
have  made  it  ourselves,  (it  may  be  even  stronger,)  or  the  con- 
trary. If  we  perceive  that  our  opponent  is  in  full  possession  of 
our  case,  then  we  may  conclude  that  whatever  considerations 
appear  to  him  to  tell  in  a  contrary  direction  will  be  worthy  of 
our  attention.  If,  on  the  contrary,  our  opponent's  statement  of 
our  case  is  inadequate,  we  shall  be  able  to  correct  or  enlarge  his 
knowledge  of  it,  and  may  reasonably  desire  him  to  consider 
and  digest  such  additional  information,  correction,  or  argument, 
before  he  again  announces  himself  as  ready  to  controvert  our 
positions.  The  same  of  course  must  be  offered  and  done  on 
both  sides.  By  this  means  an  infinite  amount  of  vain  and 
irrelevant  discussion  will  be  saved,  and  the  existence  of  such 
principles  and  dispositions  as  are  necessary  towards  profitable 
discussion  will  be  tested  at  the  outset. 

Let  us  suppose,  for  example,  the  parties  to  a  conference  to  be 
a  member  of  the  "  Orthodox'^  Church  on  the  one  side,  and  a 
Latin  on  the  other,  who  waives  for  the  time  his  cardinal  principle 
of  the  Papal  Supremacy,  and  the  question  in  debate  to  be  that 
of  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  If  the  Latin  is  willing 
to  endeavour  to  state  the  Greek  side  of  the  controversy^,  and  ap- 
pears to  the  Greek  to  do  so  fairly  and  completely,  the  Greek 
may  expect  to  find  something  worth  attending  to  in  whatever  the 
Latin  may  have  to  say  afterwards  on  the  other  side.     But  if  the 


OF    CONDUCTING    RELIGIOUS    CONTROVERSY.  99 

Latin  in  attempting  to  state  the  case  of  the  Greek  shows  that 
he  has  not  as  yet  sufficiently  studied  or  understood  it,  the  Greek 
will  be  able  to  point  this  out,  and  may  fairly  suspend  further 
discussion  till  the  Latin  has  more  fully  mastered  the  subject. 
This  one  rule  is  of  itself  almost  enough  to  cut  short  any  useless 
controversy,  and  to  bring  any  profitable  discussion  to  its  issue 
in  the  shortest  and  clearest  way. 

With  respect  to  the  persons  with  whom  we  may  at  any  time 
be  brought  into  contact,  and  who  may  differ  from  us  in  religion, 
one  general  reflection  is  important :  We  see  that  of  the  vast 
numbers  of  Christians  of  different  persuasions  now  living 
scarcely  any  have  originated  their  errors,  if  they  are  in  error, 
for  themselves :  they  mostly  follow  simply  that  tradition  in 
which  they  have  been  bred :  if  they  are  heretics  or  schismatics, 
they  are  so  unconsciously :  and  if  even  they  have  imbibed  from 
their  sect  more  or  less  of  the  evil  principles  and  spirit  in  which 
it  originated,  still  this  is  so  by  the  unhappiness  of  their  position, 
not  by  any  wilful  and  personal  departure  from  the  contrary 
good  principles  and  good  spirit  of  the  truth.  Now  there  is  no 
more  common  fault,  nor  any  fault  more  blameable^  or  more 
pernicious,  than  that  of  reasoning  against  men  who  have  in- 
herited their  errors  in  the  same  tone  and  manner  as  might  be 
suitable  or  venial  if  they  were  heresiarchs,  or  originators  of 
schism.  Let  us  suppose,  for  instance,  a  missionary  from  some 
heretical  sect  of  England  or  America  to  be  stationed  in  this  city  (of 
Athens  :)  What  can  be  more  sad,  or  more  repulsive,  than  to  see 
such  a  man  attacked  by  Christians  who, priding  themselves  on  their 
"  Orthodoxy"  and  their  Baptism,  seem  to  be  no  better  in  morals 
than  sectaries  who  are  unbaptized  ?  who,  while  invoking  Saints 
and  kissing  Icons,  show  the  image  of  God  in  their  lives  and 
conversations  no  better  than  the  revilers  of  the  Mother  of  God 
and  the  destroyers  of  images  ?  who  are  careless  as  powerless, 
and  powerless  as  careless,  to  communicate  their  "  Orthodoxy  '^  to 
the  world ;  and  certainly  have  never  yet  dreamed  of  sending  mis- 
sionaries to  preach  to  the  Americans,  or  to  the  Chinese  ?  who, 
while  reviling  sectaries  for  maintaining  and  preaching  the  error 
they  have  received,  arc  too  ready  themselves  to  give  up  the  truth 
that  they  have  received,  and  to  become  infidels,  for  the  sake  of 
an  ideal  civilization  ?     It  would  be  better  surely  to  reason  thus  : 

H  2 


100  REFLECTIONS    ON    THE    RIGHT    METHOD 

"  This  man,  who  comes  among  us,  is  perhaps  in  error  only  ac- 
cidentally, by  no  fault  of  his  own,  but  through  his  unhappy  tra- 
dition ;  while  we,  perhaps,  are  in  the  truth  by  no  virtue  of  our 
own,  but  only  by  our  tradition.  His  apparent  zeal  in  seeking  to 
communicate  what  he  thinks  truth  is  a  personal  virtue  or  merit 
in  him  :  our  want  of  a  similar  zeal  or  energy  is  a  vice  and  de- 
fect in  ourselves." 

And  as  for  the  cause  of  schisms  and  heresies,  it  is  gene- 
rally to  be  found  in  some  previous  corruption  among  orthodox 
Christians.  They  have  been  cold;  and  heresy  will  preach 
warmth.  They  have  been  attached  to  forms,  without  the  life 
and  the  spirit ;  and  heresy  will  preach  life  and  spirit  without 
forms.  They  have  multiplied  human  fables  and  traditions  in 
things  secondary ;  and  heresy  will  curtail  the  faith  in  points  es- 
sential. They  have  been  superstitious  worshippers  of  traditions  ; 
and  heresy  will  recommend  exclusively  the  study  of  the  letter  of 
Scripture.  They  have  exaggerated  Ecclesiastical  authority,  and 
carried  it  beyond  its  proper  region  of  faith  and  discipline  into 
political  government,  metaphysics,  and  even  physical  science; 
and  heresy  will  bring  in  civil  rulers,  philosophers,  and  savans, 
and  even  democratical  private  judgment,  to  dogmatize  con- 
cerning Ecclesiastical  discipline  and  faith.  The  true  way  then 
not  only  to  understand  the  origin  and  strength  of  heresy,  but 
also  to  meet  it  with  becoming  remedies,  will  be  by  the  "  Ortho- 
dox" looking  into  themselves,  and  correcting  or  guarding  against 
those  faults  from  which  heresy  takes  occasion  ;  and  by  their  exhi- 
biting faithfully  and  fully  that  portion  of  truth  on  which  heresy 
insists,  so  as  to  remove  the  prejudice  excited  against  that  other 
portion  of  truth  which  it  denies,  and  so  as  to  make  all  men  per- 
ceive the  superiority  of  orthodoxy,  which  contains  all  the  parts 
or  rays  of  truth  united  and  unmixed,  over  heresy,  which  presents 
only  dismembered  and  distorted  fragments  of  truth  mixed  with 
malice  and  error. 

In  the  next  Section  an  attempt  shall  be  made  to  pass  briefly 
in  review  the  present  state  of  particular  controversies  between 
the  Eastern  or  "  Orthodox "  Church  and  the  Latin:  in  which 
review  we  shall  speak  as  if  from  the  Eastern  side,  and  seek,  not 
how  much  may  be  said  against  the  Latins,  but  how  much  may 
be  said  towards  peace  with  them.     For  if  two  brothers  have 


OF    CONDUCTING    RELIGIOUS    CONTROVERSY.  101 

quarrelled,  (to  say  nothing  of  the  great  probability  that  both 
are  more  or  less  in  the  wrong,)  it  would  be  amiable  and  winning 
if  that  one  which  was  rather  wronged  of  the  two  were  the  more 
ready  to  admit  himself  imperfect.  And  if  Christ,  who  had  no 
sin,  made  Himself  sin  for  our  sakes,  surely  we,  who  are  sinners, 
may  be  willing,  even  if  we  are  rather  in  the  right  of  the  two, 
to  make  as  though  we  might  be  more  or  less  in  fault,  and  vo- 
lunteer the  first  advances  towards  a  reconciliation. 


DISSERTATION  VIII. 

REMARKS  ON  THif  PRESENT  STATE  OF  PARTICULAR  CONTRO- 
VERSIES BETWEEN  THE  "  ORTHODOX  "  AND  THE  "ROMAN 
CATHOLIC  ""    CHURCHES. 

I.   Of  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

A  Roman  theologian  would  not  put  this  question  first,  but  rather 
that  of  the  Papal  Supremacy ;  and  reasonably,  for  if  decided  in 
his  sense  it  supersedes  and  determines  all  others.  Still,  as  this 
summary  and  oracular  way  of  deciding  all  questions  has  never 
yet  been  perfectly  received  and  acted  on  by  Councils  even  among 
the  Latins,  and  as  the  chief  doctors  among  the  Greeks  have 
thought  the  question  of  the  Procession  to  be  the  great,  and  in- 
deed the  only  insuperable,  bar  to  intercommunion,  it  shall  here 
be  treated  first. 

As  to  the  mere  point  of  form :  That  the  insertion  of  the  Fi- 
lioque  into  the  Creed,  even  supposing  the  doctrine  to  be  true, 
was  forbidden,  and  that  it  could  not  be  inserted  either  by  the 
Pope  himself  or  by  any  Prankish  or  other  Latin  Bishops,  with 
or  without  him,  without  their  involving  themselves  and  all  their 
followers  in  sin,  was  confessed  even  by  some  Popes,  as  by  Popes 
Leo  III.  and  John  VIII.  And  until  some  (Ecumenical  Council, 
recognized  as  such  by  themselves,  shall  decide  otherwise,  and 
authorize  additions  to  the  Creed,  we  cannot  wonder  at  the 
Easterns  persisting  in  their  opinion  that  all  additions  are  unlaw- 
ful, and  insisting  on  the  restoration  of  the  Creed  as  the  first 
and  indispensable  requisite  in  order  to  union. 

Supposing  this  point  to  be  settled,  there  remains  the  deeper 
question  of  the  doctrine  in  itself.  Is  the  doctrine  of  the  eternal 
procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  the  Son  either  a  truth  which 
it  is  heresy  to  deny,  or  an  error  which  it  is  heresy  to  teach  ? 


REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES^    ETC.  103 

That  it  is  a  truth  at  all  the  Greeks  deny  :  and  certainly  they 
seem  to  prove  (as  may  be  seen  from  the  treatise  of  Adam  Zoer- 
nikajf,)  that  it  was  unknown  to  all  the  Greek  Fathers,  and  even 
expressly  denied  by  some  of  them :  and  that  the  Latin  Fathers 
too  for  many  centuries  (and  especially  St.  Augustine,)  taught  dis- 
tinctly the  same  doctrine  with  the  Greek,  and  maintained  the 
same  phraseology :  so  that  if  any  passages  in  which  St.  Augustine 
or  others  now  seem  to  assert  the  modern  Latin  doctrine  are 
genuine,  those  Fathers  must  have  held  at  once  two  contrary 
modes  of  thought  and  language  on  the  same  subject,  a  suppo- 
sition which  is  improbable,  or  which  at  any  rate,  under  present 
circumstances,  needs  clear  proof. 

Now  even  if  the  Latin  doctrine  should  be  intrinsically  true, 
the  above  are  strong  prima  facie  presumptions  against  it,  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  justify  or  excuse  the  Greeks  for  doubting 
hitherto  or  denying  it.  And  there  are  other  signs  against  it 
besides  these :  for  instance,  L  That  when  the  expression  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  proceeding  "  also  from  the  Son  "  was  first  noticed 
and  objected  against  by  the  Greeks,  the  Latins  explained  it 
away  or  dissembled  it,  instead  of  openly  insisting  on  it  as  truth  : 
Again,  IL  That  when  at  length  they  had  all  received  it  them- 
selves, the  Latins  attempted  to  force  it  into  the  Creed,  and  to 
impose  it  on  the  Church  at  large,  by  overbearing  violence,  not 
by  an  (Ecumenical  Council :  Again,  TIL  That  in  seeking  to 
impose  it  upon  the  Easterns  the  Latins  generally  have  rested  it 
upon  manifestly  false  grounds,  as  upon  the  ground  of  unbroken 
and  explicit  tradition.  Again,  IV.  That  a  vast  multitude  of 
passages  formerly  alleged  by  the  Latins  both  from  Greek  and 
Latin  Fathers  have  been  proved  either  to  be  interpolations  al- 
together, or  to  have  been  corrupted  :  Lastly,  V.  That  some  of 
the  texts  most  insisted  on  by  the  Latins  at  the  Council  of  Flo- 
rence, and  shown  afterwards  by  Zoernikaff  to  have  been  cor- 
rupted, have  since  Zoernikaff  wrote  been  surrendered  even  by 
Latin  editors  ;  so  that  the  Greek  cause,  as  respects  the  critical 
examination  of  passages,  has  gained  materially  in  strength  since 
the  Council  of  Florence.  But  to  reject  a  doctrine  not  revealed 
in  Scripture,  nor  handed  down  by  unbroken  tradition  from  the 
beginning,  but  "  dug  out,"  or  developed  by  a  part  of  the  Church 
in  later  ages,  and  violently  thrust  upon  the  rest  on  false  grounds. 


104<  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

can  never  be  heresy.  If  indeed  it  were  confessed  to  be  a  novelty 
and  a  development^  and  sufficiently  shown  to  be,  notwithstand- 
ing, a  legitimate  and  necessary  development,  there  might  be  a 
greater  responsibility  in  rejecting  it. 

On  the  other  side,  very  many  of  the  Greeks  assert  not  only 
that  the  Latin  doctrine  is  false  in  itself,  but  also  that  it  is  a 
heresy ;  and  that  the  Latins  are  heretics  for  maintainiog  it.  But 
against  this  view  it  is  fair  to  object, 

I.  That  those  heretical  consequences  which  seem  to  flow  from 
the  assertion  of  the  Procession  from  the  Son  as  well  as  from  the 
Father,  and  on  account  of  which  the  doctrine  itself  is  said  to 
be  heresy,  are  clearly  rejected  and  condemned  as  heresies  by  the 
Latins,  no  less  than  by  the  Greeks  ;  which  would  seem  to  reduce 
the  Latin  error,  if  it  be  an  error,  to  a  mere  misconception  and 
misuse  of  words : 

IL  That  all  heresies  spring  from  evil  motives  :  but  the  motive 
which  prompted  the  assertion  of  this  doctrine  is  commonly  ad- 
mitted even  by  the  Greeks  to  have  been  good,  namely,  the  desire 
to  maintain  against  the  Arians  and  other  heretics  the  co-equality 
of  the  Son  with  the  Father  : 

in.  That  the  Greeks  have  repeatedly,  and  all  along,  offered 
to  unite  and  Communicate  with  the  Latins,  winking  at  all  other 
faults,  if  only  the  form  of  the  Creed  were  restored ;  which  they 
could  not  have  done,  if  the  doctrine  of  the  Procession  from 
the  Son  had  been  held  to  be  heresy  in  itself: 

IV.  That  until  not  only  some,  or  many  passages,  but  all  those 
passages  in  St.  Augustine  and  other  Latin  Fathers  which  assert 
the  Procession  from  the  Son  have  been  shown  to  be  corrupt  or 
interpolated,  or  in  sense  to  mean  no  more  than  they  were  stated 
to  mean  in  the  explanation  given  at  Home  to  Maximus  the 
Martyr  in  the  seventh  century,  the  Latins,  even  if  they  be  in 
error,  cannot  be  called  heretics  for  adhering  to  a  doctrine  seem- 
ingly taught  and  bequeathed  to  them  by  great  Saints,  who  are 
venerated  as  such  by  the  Eastern  Church  no  less  than  by  their 
own. 

We  conclude  then  that,  so  long  as  the  Filioque  is  not  inter- 
polated into  the  Creed  without  the  consent  of  a  Council,  the  ques- 
tion of  the  doctrine  in  itself  is  still  open  and  pending;  and  that 
neither  are  the  Greeks  heretics  if  they  deny  it,  nor  the  Latins  if 


BETWEEN  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  LATINS.       105 

they  assert  it,  so  long  as  they  both  desire  that  the  subject  may 
be  fairly  aud  religiously  examined  and  decided  by  an  CEcume- 
nical  Council. 

II.   Of  the  Roman  and  Papal  Supremacy. 

This  for  the  Romans  it  is  heresy  to  deny,  and  schism  ulti- 
mately to  resist ;  while  the  Greeks  make  the  assertion  of  it  to  be 
the  second  great  obstacle  to  union,  and  often  call  it  in  itself  a 
heresy ^ 

Now  it  is  plain  that  the  titles  "  Vicar  of  Christ^'  and  "  Head 
of  the  Church  "  are  not  in  themselves  necessarily  either  false  or 
heretical,  seeing  that  the  Greeks  themselves  allow  that  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  and  on  certain  occasions  every  Priest  is  Christ's 
vicar  and  representative,  and  that  every  Bishop  is  in  his  own 
diocese  both  vicar  of  Christ  and  head  of  the  Church ;  so  that 
the  chief  Bishop  of  any  wider  province,  or  Patriarchate,  or  of 
the  whole  Church,  may  well  be  called  by  the  same  titles,  only  in 
a  more  general  and  laxer  sense. 

It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  these  titles  are  claimed 
for  the  Pope  of  Rome  in  no  such  general  or  lax  sense.  But 
that  spirit  of  unbounded  domination,  with  the  capacity  for  exer- 
cising it,  which  characterized  pagan  Rome  has  been  transmitted 
as  a  local  inheritance  to  Rome  Christian.  Already  in  the  second 
century  a  Pope  (Victor,)  could  think  of  cutting  off  from  Com- 
munion whole  Churches  merely  because  they  presumed  to 
maintain  a  ritual  tradition  differing  from  his  own  :  And  a  long 
history  might  be  written  of  the  encroachments,  fresh  precedents, 
conflicts,  partial  and  occasional  defeats,  great  and  ultimate  vic- 
tories and  conquests,  by  which  the  Roman  See  has  subjugated 
and  incorporated  under  its  dominion  the  greater  part  of  the 
Church,  so  as  to  afford  a  parallel  with  the  gradual  extension  of 
the  pagan  Roman  Empire  over  the  habitable  and  civilized  world. 
The  practical  question  for  the  Easterns  is  the  following  :  Seeing 
that  such  a  spirit  exists  as  a  matter  of  fact  in  the  Roman 
Church,  and  supposing  it  to  be  evil,  (as  they  do  suppose  it  to 
be,)  does  it  follow  that  the  Eastern  Church  must  either  accept 
and  teach  any  heresy  by  Communicating  with  the  Roman 
Church,  or  even  thereby  approve  the  Roman  spirit  of  domination ; 
supposing,  that  is,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Papal  Headship  were 


106  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

not  imposed  upon  her  in  order  to  such  Communion  as  an  article 
of  faith  ?  Does  it  not  on  the  contrary  seem  plain  that  such  in- 
tercommunion (supposing  the  two  Churches  to  be  otherwise 
agreed  in  faith^)  would  involve  neither  the  assertion  nor  the 
denial  of  any  doctrinal  proposition  whatever,  so  far  as  the 
Easterns  are  concerned  ?  and  that,  therefore,  it  is  not  only  pos- 
sible for  them,  but  their  duty,  to  offer  such  Communion  ? 

But  a  question  arises  further,  whether  by  so  offering  to  Com- 
municate with  the  Latins  they  would  not  be  subjecting,  them- 
selves sooner  or  later  to  Roman  rule  ?  and  whether  they  may 
not  justifiably  break  the  visible  unity  of  the  Church  for  the  sake 
of  their  Ecclesiastical  liberty  ?  But  neither  here  is  there  really 
any  room  for  doubt.  For  supposing  Rome  to  be  willing  to  Com- 
municate on  such  terms,  the  Eastern  Church  would  remain  after 
the  reunion  just  as  free  to  resist  all  future  encroachments  as  she 
has  been  for  the  last  thousand  years :  and  the  only  case  in 
which  Rome  could  enter,  or  establish  any  new  precedent  for  in- 
terference, would  be  if  questions  were  to  arise  within  the 
Eastern  Church  herself,  and  that  Church  were  to  be  unable, 
without  calling  in  foreign  aid,  to  enable  an  orthodox  minority 
to  overcome  a  heterodox  majority.  In  this  way  in  former  times 
many  Sees  and  Churches  which  once  had  been  independent, 
and  which  might,  if  they  had  been  perfect,  have  preserved  for 
ever  the  canonical  right  of  independence,  lost  both  their  inde- 
pendence, and  their  right  to  it,  and  fell  under  that  power  which 
gave  the  victory  to  an  orthodox  minority.  And  so,  no  doubt,  it 
might  possibly  be  again  with  the  Eastern  Churches  after  their 
reunion  with  Rome.  But  such  a  subjugation  would  be  by  their 
own  fault,  and  to  their  disgrace,  and  would  be  to  the  honour  of 
Rome,  and  a  sign  in  favour  of  the  Roman  claims. 

However,  it  may  be  said  that  this  whole  speculation  is  useless 
because,  whatever  it  might  be  possible  or  right  for  the  Easterns 
to  offer,  Rome  cannot  on  her  side  allow  any  such  conditions, 
but  must  require  the  Easterns  simply  to  receive  the  doctrine  of 
the  Papal  Supremacy  as  an  article  of  faith,  and  to  swear  in  prac- 
tice to  obey  it.     But  this  is  not  necessarily  so : 

That  the  doctrine  of  the  Papal  Supremacy,  as  now  held  and 
taught  in  the  Latin  Church,  was  not  an  article  of  the  faith  ex- 
plicitly revealed  and  handed  down  by  universal  tradition  from 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  107 

the  beginning  is  quite  clear.  Supposing  it  to  be  intrinsically  a 
true  doctrine,  it  must  have  been  rather  a  deposit  committed  to 
the  Roman  Church  alone,  as  the  consciousness  of  a  special  gift 
to  be  manifested  gradually  as  the  circumstances  of  the  Church 
should  need  it.  And  if  it  be  now,  either  for  the  Latins  or  in 
itself,  an  article  of  the  faith,  it  must  have  become  so  by  deve- 
lopment. But  the  disallowance  of  a  doctrine  resting  not  on 
express  Scripture  or  on  original  and  unbroken  tradition,  but  on 
development,  is  not  heresy ;  at  least  not  until  it  has  been  (not 
obtruded  violently  on  false  and  even  absurd  grounds,  but)  pro- 
posed as  a  development  in  a  brotherly  and  Christian  spirit,  and 
the  legitimacy  and  necessity  of  such  a  development  sufficiently 
demonstrated.  The  Latin  Church  has  Communicated  in  former 
ages  with  the  Eastern  without  exacting  any  confession  of  the 
Papal  Supremacy  as  an  article  of  faith,  and  without  imposing 
any  oath  of  obedience,  or  sending  Bulls  and  Palls  in  cases  of 
fresh  consecrations  of  Bishops  or  Primates  from  Rome.  And 
she  might  do  so  again,  if  she  pleased,  without  waiving  a  tittle  of 
her  own  claims  or  ideas  concerning  her  own  abstract  rights  and 
powers ;  merely  waiting  her  time,  till  the  Easterns  of  themselves, 
or  under  the  influence  of  some  future  events  or  circumstances, 
should  ripen  among  themselves  that  development  which  human 
scandals  and  passions  and  mismanagement  have  hitherto  pre- 
vented or  retarded.  To  act  thus  economically  with  a  Church 
which  has  never  admitted  the  Papal  Supremacy  as  a  doctrine 
would  involve  no  such  retractation  or  humiliation  for  Rome  as 
would  be  involved  if  any  of  those  Churches  which  have  long 
been  governed  by  her,  (if  the  Spanish  Church,  for  instance,  or 
even  the  Gallican,)  were  to  be  suffered  for  the  future  to  govern 
themselves  free  from  all  external  interference. 

IIL   Of  Western  Baptisms  without  Trine  Immersion. 

Between  the  time  of  Michael  Cerularius  and  that  of  the 
Council  of  Florence  the  Greeks  often,  but  not  uniformly,  treated 
such  Latin  Baptisms  as  had  been  administered  without  trine 
immersion  as  mere  nullities :  and  in  Russia  too  we  find  in  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  Greek  Prelates  directing  that 
all  "  Romans  "  or  "  Latins  "  not  regularly  dipped  with  three 
immersions  were  to  be  "  Baptized.'^     On   the  other  hand  the 


108  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

German  Latins  also,  by  way  probably  of  retaliating  upon  the 
Easterns,  rebaptized  during  several  centuries  Christians  coming 
over  to  them  from  the  Oriental  or  Greek  rite,  without  any  ritual 
pretext  whatever. 

As  for  the  Greeks,  their  occasional  and  inconsistent  usage  of 
rebaptizing  Latins  seemed  after  the  Council  of  Florence  to  be 
corrected  and  done  away  for  ever,  and  one  uniform  practice  to  be 
established  for  the  future,  by  a  Synod  held  at  Constantinople  in 
1484,  which  all  the  four  Patriarchs  confirmed.  And  the  enact- 
ments of  this  Synod  were  extended  to  Russia  in  1667  by  a  mixed 
Synod  of  Greek  and  Russian  Bishops  held  at  Moscow,  to  which 
all  the  four  Patriarchs  were  consenting  parties,  and  over  which 
two  of  them,  Paisius  of  Alexandria  and  Macarius  of  Antioch, 
presided  in  person.  And  it  is  remarkable  that  this  Synod  of 
Moscow  not  only  abrogated  the  custom  of  rebaptizing  Latins 
which  had  been  decreed  by  a  previous  local  Synod  held  under 
the  Patriarch  Philaret  Niketich,  grandfather  of  the  reigning 
Sovereign  Alexis,  but  gave  reasons  and  precedents  to  satisfy  the 
scruples  of  Alexis,  showing  that  the  erroneous  decrees  of  a  local 
Council  might  be  so  corrected  and  abrogated  by  another  greater 
and  more  general  Council.  And  the  question  which  had  been  sub- 
mitted to  this  Council  was  not  merely  whether  the  Latins  ought 
to  be  rebaptized  on  the  ground  of  heresy,  but  also  this,  "Whe- 
ther it  is  necessary  or  right  by  condescension  to  recognize  as 
Christians  those  who  have  been  Baptized  otherwise  than  with 
three  immersions  "  ?  The  same  rule  was  extended  to  the  Bap- 
tisms of  Lutherans  and  Calvinists  by  a  Synod  held  at  Constan- 
tinople early  in  the  eighteenth  century;  and  was  soon  afterwards 
established  in  the  Russian  Church  by  the  Answer  of  the  Patri- 
arch Jeremiah  III.  to  Peter  the  Great,  an  Answer  professedly 
based  upon  the  decisions  of  the  abovementioned  Synods. 

However,  in  1756  an  "Opoj  or  Constitution  put  forth  at  Con- 
stantinople with  the  signatures  of  three  Patriarchs,  but  without 
any  synodal  act,  reversed  all  the  former  decisions ;  and  using  the 
terms  "affusion"  and  "aspersion  "  indifferently,  and  imputing 
them  both  to  the  Latins,  ordered  that  thenceforth  Latin  and 
other  Western  Baptisms,  as  being  administered  by  sprinkling, 
should  be  held  to  be  invalid  ;  and  that  all  proselytes  from  Western 
communities  not  previously  Baptized  by  trine  immersion  should 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  109 

be  "  Baptized."  And  thus  the  custom  of  rebaptizing  being  re- 
introduced into  the  Greek  Church  has  been  uniformly  main- 
tained by  it  ever  since ;  while  the  contrary  custom  of  admitting 
the  essential  validity  of  Latin  Baptisms,  grounded  on  earlier 
decisions  of  the  Greek  Church,  is  still  maintained  by  the  Rus- 
sian Church  ;  and  the  Eastern  Church  as  a  whole  has  in  conse- 
quence two  contrary  and  irreconcilable  doctrines  and  practices  at 
once  on  this  important  subject. 

The  Greeks  however  by  dissembling  with  the  Russians,  and 
by  admitting  without  question  as  orthodox  Christians  to  their 
Communion  all  those  "  unbaptized  "  persons  (from  the  Consorts 
of  the  Imperial  Family  down  to  the  thousands  of  ordinary 
Latins  and  Protestants  annually  received  as  proselytes,)  who 
have  been  received  to  Communion  by  the  Russians,  show  their 
own  habit  of  rebaptizing  to  be  either  a  wilful  sacrilege,  (for  it  is 
sacrilege  to  attempt  knowingly  to  repeat  Baptism,)  or  else,  as 
we  must  rather  for  the  sake  of  charity  interpret  it,  to  be  virtu- 
ally, though  not  in  form,  conditional  or  hypothetical.  This  latter 
explanation  of  it  is  no  absurdity.  Tor  so  the  ancient  Canons 
direct  infants  and  others  about  whom  there  is  any  doubt  to  be 
simply  "  Baptized."  And  persons  who  have  received  doubtful 
Ordination  are  simply  Ordained,  without  its  being  understood 
that  their  former  Ordination  is  thereby  declared  with  certainty 
to  have  been  a  nullity. 

Not  only  do  the  Greeks  by  dissembling  with  the  Russians  re- 
duce their  own  practice  to  a  conditional  sense,  but  by  their  una- 
nimous admission  that  in  case  of  necessity,  or  for  any  great 
advantage,  (as  in  dealing  with  large  bodies  of  men  or  whole 
communities  at  once,  or  to  avoid  any  great  scandal,)  they  can 
use  condescension  or  economy  on  the  subject,  and  receive  Wes- 
terns without  rebaptism,  they  virtually  acknowledge  the  validity 
of  Western  Baptisms,  and  reduce  their  own  doctrine  to  this  sad 
and  self-condemnatory  proposition,  "  Latin  Baptisms  are  a  nul- 
lity, except  when  we  Greeks  please  that  they  he  recognized."  The 
only  excuses  which  can  be  found  for  this  are,  first,  that  the 
modern  Greek  Clergy  have  not  been  trained  to  reason  accurately, 
and  if  they  find  themselves  entangled  in  any  awkward  logical 
consequences,  dismiss  summarily  all  such  thorny  difficulties  as 
having  nothing  to  do  with  religion  :  and,  secondly,  that  they 


110  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

can  object  that  similar  inconsistencies  of  opinion  and  practice 
existed  both  on  this  very  subject  of  Baptism  and  on  others  of 
great  importance  in  earlier  ages  ;  and  what  the  Church  endured 
in  the  way  of  inconsistency  or  imperfection  then  she  may  en- 
dure now ;  and  so  it  is  not  necessary  to  put  themselves  to  any 
great  trouble  to  reconcile  the  Russian  practice  and  their  own. 
But  there  is  a  wide  difference  between  the  coexistence  of  con- 
trary opinions  and  practices  in  earlier  ages,  when  communication 
was  comparatively  difficult,  and  when  the  discovery  of  any  such 
inconsistency  led  immediately  to  a  conflict  and  finally  to  its 
removal,  and  the  conscious  and  purposed  maintenance  of  con- 
tradictory opinions  or  usages  at  the  present  day. 

The  admission  of  many  Greeks  that  clinic  Baptism  administered 
by  an  orthodox  Priest  without  trine  immersion,  or  without  im- 
mersion at  all,  ought  not  to  be  repeated,  is  another  plain  testi- 
mony to  the  truth  :  as  is  also  the  uniform  conduct  of  the  Greek 
Church  on  all  occasions  of  public  negotiation  whether  with  the 
Latins,  (as  at  the  Council  of  Florence  in  1448,)  or  with  Protes- 
tants (as  with  the  Lutherans  between  1584  and  1587,  and  with 
the  Anglican  Nonjurors  between  1716  and  1724,)  with  a  view 
to  union.  Never  at  any  time  has  she  on  such  occasions  so 
much  as  hinted  that  the  Westerns  need  to  be  Baptized.  If  in- 
deed it  had  been  otherwise,  all  other  discussions  about  doctrine, 
even  about  the  Filioque  itself,  or  the  Papal  Supremacy,  would 
have  been  secondary  and  out  of  place.  The  Latins,  having  had 
no  Baptism  since  the  time  that  they  disused  trine  immersion 
and  adopted  affusion  or  sprinkling,  could  have  no  Sacraments, 
and  no  Priesthood  :  so  that  to  discuss  wath  them  other  details 
with  a  view  to  union  would  have  been,  and  would  be  still,  quite 
superfluous.  But  the  Greeks,  as  has  been  said,  have  not  been 
trained  to  logic ;  and  consider  that  all  such  difficulties  arising 
from  their  own  inconsistencies  may  be  avoided  as  some  birds  are 
said  to  avoid  the  fowler,  by  putting  their  heads  under  a  leaf  and 
shutting  their  eyes,  though  their  whole  body  is  left  exposed. 

There  ai'e  also  other  signs  that  the  Greeks  are  in  error  on 
this  subject;  namely,  that  their  most  learned  and  eminent 
men  in  speaking  of  it  differ  much  from  one  another,  as  having 
no  uniform  tradition  nor  line  of  argument  to  bring  forward. 
They   often  give  as  the  ground  for  the  Constitution  of  1756 


BETWEEN  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  LATINS.       Ill 

the  most  palpably  false  and  calumnious  statements  as  to  the 
Latin  manner  of  Baptizing,  and  as  to  their  having  changed  their 
Baptismal  ritual  since  the  earlier  Greek  decisions  against  rebap- 
tism :  and  they  often  run  off  into  foolish  and  acrimonious 
tirades  against  Rome  and  the  Pope,  which  have  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  this  particular  question.  In  presence  of  such 
signs  and  such  dispositions  argument  is  useless.  Let  us  rather 
be  ashamed,  and  pray. 

Dismissing  then  the  present  lamentable  state  of  feeling  and 
opinion  on  this  subject  as  self-contradictory  and  self-condemned, 
and  looking  forward  to  better  times,  let  us  consider  the  question 
in  itself : 

It  is  admitted  that  clinic  Baptism  administered  by  an  ortho- 
dox Priest,  though  administered  without  trine  immersion,  or 
without  immersion  at  all,  is  a  valid  sacrament  of  regeneration, 
and  not  to  be  repeated  if  the  party  recovers.  And  if  this  be  so, 
the  fact  that  the  Church  allows  clinic  Baptism  without  immer- 
sion on  the  ground  of  necessity,  but  forbids  so  to  Baptize  in 
cases  where  she  sees  no  necessity,  will  not  prevent  such  Bap- 
tisms, if  improperly  administered  in  contravention  of  the 
Church's  prohibition,  from  being  valid  Baptisms,  although  it 
may  subject  the  parties  so  improperly  administering  Baptism  to 
Ecclesiastical  penance  or  excommunication. 

Baptism  by  sprinklin//  (which  is  unhappily  common  among 
many  of  the  Protestants,  and  among  the  Anglicans  also,  though 
contrary  to  the  Anglican  Ritual,)  is  distinguishable  from  Baptism 
by  affusion  or  washing  on  this  account,  that  it  does  not  offer 
the  same  certainty  that  the  water  touches  the  person  baptized. 
And  on  this  account  it  may  be  reasonable  to  rebaptize  condition- 
ally those  who  have  been  Baptized  only  by  sprinkling.  Other- 
wise, the  Scriptures  themselves,  "  I  will  sprinkle  clean  water 
upon  them  and  they  shall  be  clean  : "  and  again  "  If  the 
ashes  of  a  heifer  sprinkling  the  unclean  sanctifieth  to  the  puri- 
fying of  the  flesh,  much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ  purge 
the  conscience,  &c  :"  and  again  :  "  Having  our  hearts  sprinkled 
from  an  evil  conscience,  and  our  bodies  washed  with  pure  water :" 
and  the  answer  of  Christ  Himself  to  Peter,  "  He  that  is  washed 
needeth  not  to  wash  every  part,  but  is  clean  every  whit,''  (though 
it  be  only  one  part  that  is  outwardly  washed,)  seem  to  show  that 


112  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

it  is  not  the  quantity  of  the  water  used,  nor  the  manner  of  its 
application,  on  which  depends  the  grace  of  the  Sacrament. 

But  thus  much  being  laid  down,  and  it  being  supposed  to  be 
conceded  that  persons  improperly  Baptized  otherwise  than  by 
ti'ine  immersion,  without  any  real  necessity  allowed  by  the 
Church,  are  still  to  be  acknowledged  as  Baptized  and  regenerate ; 
and  that  those  only  who  have  been  Baptized  by  siJrinkling,  or 
concerning  whom  there  exists  any  real  doubt,  may  be  rebap- 
tized  conditionally,  (the  conditionality  being  either  expressed,  or 
understood,)  there  remains  still  the  question,  How  are  those  to 
be  dealt  with  who  presume  so  to  Baptize  improperly  ? 

In  two  cases  the  answer  to  this  question  is  easy.  For  first, 
if  the  persons  so  irregularly  Baptizing  are  aliens  to  the  Church, 
she  can  do  nothing;  for  she  judges  "  not  them  that  are  without, 
but  them  that  are  within."  And  secondly,  if  they  are  indivi- 
duals of  the  Clergy  or  laity  under  the  jurisdiction  of  any  parti- 
cular Church,  they  will  be  punished  by  that  Church  according 
to  her  Canons.  But  there  is  a  third  case,  the  following,  which 
is  less  clear : 

Supposing  any  whole  Church,  as  the  Latin,  to  persist  in 
permitting  or  directing  within  its  own  sphere  the  administra- 
tion of  Baptism  after  an  irregular  form,  without  any  real  neces- 
sity, and  refusing  to  amend  her  practice,  would  this  alone  justify 
the  Easterns  in  refusing  to  Communicate  with  the  West  ?  or 
might  not  even  this  abuse,  though  great,  be  endured  for  the  sake 
of  unity  ? 

On  the  one  hand,  it  is  undeniable  that  if  Baptism  is  unneces- 
sarily administered  otherwise  than  by  trine  immersion,  some  of 
those  lesser  mysteries  which  it  contains  are  no  longer  visibly 
exhibited  in  each  particular  case  of  its  administration.  Neither 
the  three  Persons  of  the  Trinity,  (so  far  as  the  act  of  Baptism  is 
concerned,)  nor  the  three  days  and  nights  of  Christ's  lying  in 
the  grave,  nor  our  being  buried  with  Christ  (by  being  sub- 
merged under  the  water,)  and  rising  again  with  Him  (by  rising 
out  of  the  water,)  to  newness  of  life,  are  expressed  as  they  were 
formerly  expressed  by  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Ritual.  And 
the  greater  or  more  powerful  any  part  of  the  Church  w^iich  dis- 
regards these  lesser  mysteries  of  Baptism,  the  greater  also  will 
be  the  danger  that  the  remaining  portions  of  the  Church  may 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  113 

become  infected  with  the  same  irreverence,  and  so  the  full  type 
of  the  Sacrament  be  lost  altogether.  In  principle  therefore  it 
might  seem  reasonable  to  deny  the  right  of  an  individual  Pope, 
or  even  of  the  whole  Western  Church,  to  change  the  oecumeni- 
cal form  of  Baptism,  and  to  insist  upon  the  correction  of  this 
abuse  as  an  indispensable  preliminary  to  reunion.  And  we  may 
hope  that  in  an  united  (Ecumenical  Council  there  would  be  no 
difficulty  in  obtaining  such  a  correction. 

But  if  there  w^ere  difficulty,  then  perhaps,  as  sometimes  in 
medicine,  it  would  be  right  to  consider  not  what  is  best  or  good 
in  itself,  but  what  is  possible  or  tolerable  under  the  circum- 
stances. If  at  the  beginning  of  the  schism  such  men  as  Theo- 
phylact  of  Bulgaria  judged  that  unity  was  so  high  a  duty  that 
for  the  sake  of  it  all  the  Latin  abuses,  excepting  only  the  inter- 
polation of  the  Creed,  might  be  endured,  much  more  surely 
after  a  thousand  years^  experience  of  the  horrible  effects  resulting 
from  separation  may  we  think  the  same,  when  all  the  world 
seems  merging  into  immorality  and  infidelity  on  account  of  the 
outward  obscuration  of  unity.  And  it  might  well  be  hoped 
that  evils  which  it  has  been  found  impossible  to  correct  by  divi- 
sion might  be  corrected  after  reunion.  And  in  the  mean  time 
not  only  the  judgment  of  Theophylact  and  others,  but  many 
public  precedents  on  the  part  of  the  Greek  and  Russian  Churches 
since  the  schism  may  be  adduced  to  show  that  such  long-suffer- 
ing is  not  impossible. 

IV.     Of  the    Controversy  respecting  Priests  applying   the 
Holy  Chrism. 

The  Latins  in  the  ninth  century  reconfirmed,  or  reanointed 
by  their  Bishops  in  Bulgaria  those  who  had  been  already 
anointed  with  the  holy  Chrism  after  Baptism  by  Greek  Priests. 
This  controversy,  so  far  as  the  Latins  are  concerned,  has  in- 
deed since  been  brought  to  an  end,  and  their  objections  have 
been  withdrawn,  the  conditions  which  they  would  have  dictated 
at  Florence  to  the  Greeks  allowing  the  Greek  practice,  and  vari- 
ous Uniat  congregations  still  retaining  it.  Still,  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  offer  some  remarks  on  the  subject,  as  it  may 
supply  an  important  hint  and  lesson  for  the  reconciliation  of 
misunderstandings  and  the  restoration  of  unity. 


114  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

The  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  given  through  the  Apostles, 
and  afterwards  through  their  successors,  the  Bishops.  The 
diviue  unguent  ran  from  their  hands  on  to  the  heads  of  the 
baptized.  But  an  Apostle  or  a  Bishop  was  necessary  for  this 
ministry.  This  is  what  the  Latins  rightly  asserted :  and  on 
this  account,  seeing  the  Greek  Priests  apply  the  holy  Chrism,  they 
imagined  that  the  Greeks  made  the  Priest,  no  less  than  the 
Bishop,  the  source  of  this  divine  gift.  But  if  they  had  known 
or  considered  that  the  Chrism  so  applied  by  Greek  Priests  must 
have  been  consecrated  previously  by  the  Bishop,  ( and  by  the 
chief  Bishop,)  and  that  it  ran  originally  from  his  hands,  and 
that  not  all  the  Priests  in  the  world  without  a  Bishop  could 
consecrate  or  make  the  Chrism,  they  might  have  perceived  in 
this  a  testimony  even  more  emphatic  than  their  own  to  the  truth 
that  the  Bishop  only  is  the  proper  and  original  minister  of 
Confirmation,  the  Priest^s  hands  for  convenience'  sake  applying 
the  outward  unguent,  but  the  Bishop's  hands  alone  having  made 
that  unguent  effectual  for  conferring  spiritual  grace. 

Here  is  an  instance  of  misunderstanding,  scandal,  and  schism, 
arising  from  that  which  ought  rather  to  have  been  a  cause  for 
mutual  love,  and  honour,  and  edification ;  and  for  glorifying  in 
common  that  Spirit  from  Whose  deep  unity  all  varieties  of 
outward  rite  within  the  Catholic  Church,  as  garments  of  the 
heavenly  Bride,  receive  their  contrasted  but  harmonizing  colours. 
And  this  one  instance  may  suffice  to  bring  to  our  notice  a  gene- 
ral principle ;  and  may  furnish  us  with  a  key  to  the  more  or  less 
complete  understanding  and  reconcilement  of  very  many  other 
discrepancies  and  controversies ;  and  may  fill  us  with  shame  and 
humiliation  for  those  sins,  and  especially  for  that  want  of  cha- 
rity, which  has  in  so  many  instances  turned  our  very  beauty  and 
glory  into  scandal.  The  reader  will  be  able  to  apply  this  prin- 
ciple of  reconciliation  in  detail  for  himself,  and  will  probably  find 
it  take  him  a  long  way.  As  a  help  and  illustration  at  the  out- 
set he  may  consider  one  other  instance  in  a  purely  ritual  matter 
of  no  controversial  importance;  namely,  the  following: 

A  Greek  Priest  hearing  for  the  first  time  that  the  Sunday 
after  Pentecost  is  not  the  festival  of  All  Saints  for  the  Latins, 
but  Trinity  Sunday,  and  learning  that  this  Latin  festival  of 
Trinity  Sunday  is  of  comparatively  late  institution,  will  probably 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  115 

enough  show  his  self-complacency  at  the  antiquity  of  his  own 
ritual,  and  utter  some  sarcasm  at  the  improprieties  of  Latin  in- 
novation. Yet  if  fairly  considered,  the  Latin  custom  in  this  point, 
be  the  date  of  its  introduction  what  it  may,  will  be  found  to  be 
a  beautiful  variety  and  supplement  to  the  Greek,  so  that  the  two 
taken  together  express  the  whole  of  one  idea  with  a  complete- 
ness which  neither  of  them  could  have  alone.  With  the  Greeks 
the  festival  of  Pentecost  is  the  festival  of  the  Trinity  because 
by  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  the  revelation  of  the  three 
Divine  Persons  is  completed ;  and  with  this  the  Latins,  making 
the  octave  of  the  festival  to  be  the  special  festival  of  the  Trinity, 
do  not  disagree :  for  the  octave  is  the  repetition  and  completion 
of  the  first  day.  The  only  difference  is,  that  the  Greek  order 
contemplates  the  Trinity  as  pre-existing  and  about  to  reveal 
Itself  by  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Latin  order  con- 
templates the  knowledge  of  the  Trinity  as  the  result  and  fruit 
of  that  descent,  to  be  acknowledged  by  us  subsequently.  And 
as  the  Holy  Ghost  Which  came  down  on  the  day  of  Pentecost 
began  thenceforth  immediately  to  form  and  sanctify  the  body  of 
the  Church,  the  Greek  ritual  with  manifest  propriety  makes  the 
festival  of  All  Saints  not  only  to  follow  next  after  that  of  Pente- 
cost, but  to  begin  from  its  octave,  to  be  its  supplement,  continua- 
tion, and  completion.  The  Latin  ritual,  on  the  other  hand,  in- 
asmuch as  the  sanctification  of  the  body  of  the  Church,  though 
beginning  from  the  day  of  Pentecost,  is  not  complete  till  the  end, 
celebrates  the  festival  of  All  Saints  at  that  season  when  the  Ec- 
clesiastical year  is  all  but  completed,  and  we  are  now  coming 
round  again  to  the  Second  Advent.  The  instructions  contained 
in  the  Epistles  and  Gospels  for  all  the  Sundays  after  Pentecost 
represent  all  the  workings  of  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  sanctifi- 
cation of  the  elect  during  the  time  of  the  Dispensation  :  and 
then,  after  the  Saints  of  the  whole  Dispensation  have  been  thus 
perfected,  they  are  all  mystically  united  together  in  one  common 
festival.  But  the  beginning  of  their  prospective  sanctification 
immediately  after  the  Day  of  Pentecost  and  the  completion  of 
their  actual  sanctification  at  the  end,  and  its  celebration  retro- 
spectively, together  make  up  one  complete  idea  :  and  either  ritual 
would  be  comparatively  imperfect,  if  it  had  not  the  other  for  its 
supplement.     But  to  return  : 

I  2 


116  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

Respecting  the  controversy  about  the  administration  of  the 
Holy  Chrism  by  Priests  it  is  further  worthy  of  notice  that  it 
may  have  an  indirect  connection^  through  the  mystical  signifi- 
cancy  of  the  ritual^  with  the  doctrine  of  the  original  and  secon- 
dary procession,  or  rather  of  the  p7'ocession  and  dispensation,  of 
the  Holy  Giiost. 

The  Latin  ritual  by  making  the  Bishop  alone  to  be  both  the 
maker  and  the  applier  of  the  holy  Chrism  symbolizes  this  truth, 
that  the  Holy  Spirit,  both  in  Himself  and  in  His  application 
as  a  gift,  is  from  the  Father  ;  and  there  stops  short.  But  the 
Greek  ritual,  which,  while  restricting  the  making  of  the  Chrism 
to  the  Bishop,  allows  it  to  be  applied  by  the  Priest  also,  sym- 
bolizes not  only  the  above  truth  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  hypos- 
tatically  from  the  Father  (and  the  Father  only,)  but  also  this, 
that  He  is  sent  and  given  in  the  Dispensation  by  the  Son. 
And  the  Latins,  who  blamed  the  Greeks  for  not  asserting  au 
eternal  hypostatical  procession  from  the  Son,  were  at  the  same 
time,  without  knowing  what  they  did,  attacking  the  Greek 
ritual  for  symbolizing  even  so  much  as  a  secondary  procession 
or  derivation  from  the  Son,  and  insisting  on  the  exclusive  va- 
lidity of  their  own  ritual,  which  so  insisted  on,  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  interpretation  and  supplement  afforded  it  by  the  Greek, 
would  hint  a  denial  not  only  of  the  eternal  and  hypostatical,  but 
even  of  the  secondary  and  dispensatory  procession  from  the  Son. 

Again,  the  Latin  Church  by  the  admission  of  the  Eastern 
ritual  in  Uniat  congregations  is  now  herself  symbolizing,  though 
unconsciously  perhaps  and  unintentionally,  the  doctrine  of  the 
original  hypostatical  procession  being  from  the  Father  only, 
besides  being  indebted  to  the  Uniat  Greek  ritual  for  an  inter- 
pretation and  supplement  which  shows  that  her  own  Latin  ritual 
does  not  deny  the  secondary  procession  from  the  Son. 

A  further  question  concerning  Confirmation  or  Chrism  arises 
from  the  Latin  practice  of  deferring  it  to  years  of  discretion,  and 
even  thenperha])s  confounding  the  relative  orderof  the  Sacraments 
by  giving  the  holy  Communion  to  those  about  to  be  Confirmed 
frsi,  without  any  necessity.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  in  whatever 
degree  the  development  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  nature  is 
deemed  a  prerequisite  for  the  Sacraments  of  spiritual  Unction  and 
spiritual  Food,  it  must  be  no  less  but  rather  more  so  for  the- 


BETWEEN  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  LATINS. 


117 


Sacrament  of  the  New  Birth.  Whatever  reasons  of  convenience 
may  have  prompted  the  postponement,  it  has  opened  a  wide 
door  to  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  errors,  as  is  exempUfied  in  the 
Anghcan  Church,  whose  Bishops  are  fixing  later  and  later  the 
age  for  receiving  candidates  for  Confirmation.  The  Easterns 
therefore  would  naturally  and  properly  seek  to  correct  this  error, 
though,  if  it  were  found  impossible  to  correct  it,  its  continuance 
might  be  endured  for  the  sake  of  unity. 

V.   OfAzymes. 

As  for  the  Azymes  of  the  Latins,  which  the  Greeks  in 
the  eleventh  century  (probably  soon  after  their  introduction,) 
objected  as  a  sufficient  cause  for  separation  as  much  as,  and 
sometimes  even  more  than  the  FiUoque,  there  are  certainly  signs 
that  the  Roman  Church  herself  originally  consecrated  like  the 
Easterns  in  leavened  bread,  as  has  been  admitted  by  some  of 
the  most  learned  and  candid  of  the  modern  Latins.  And  if  one 
dwells  on  the  sense  attached  to  the  leaven  in  the  Eucharist  by 
the  Fathers,  and  suggested  by  its  office  in  making  that  natural 
bread  which  is  the  symbol  of  the  Heavenly  Bread,  the  Latin 
custom  must  appear  in  the  light  of  a  lawless  and  mischievous 
innovation,  destructive  in  part  of  the  sense  and  propriety  of  the 
symbol.  But  if  one  considers  on  the  other  hand  that  "  leaven  " 
is  spoken  of  also  in  a  bad  sense  in  the  Scriptures,  and  that  the 
present  rite  of  the  Latins  was  not  introduced  to  symbolize  any 
heretical  doctrine,  (as  the  Armenian  alteration  of  the  TpiTsxyiov 
was,  and  perhaps  also  their  unmixed  cup,)  but  to  symbolize  the 
same  orthodox  doctrine  as  that  of  the  Greeks,  though  by  a  dif- 
ferent and  contrary  application  of  the  symbol  leaven,  the  only 
question  which  remains  is,  first,  whether  even  half  the  Church 
with  the  Pope,  but  without  a  Council,  could  rightly  vary  the 
previously  existing  oecumenical  rite  in  such  a  matter?  and, 
secondly,  seeing  that  the  Pope  and  the  Western  Church  have 
as  a  matter  of  fact  varied  the  previously  existing  oecumenical 
rite,  and  that  their  use  of  Azymes  has  now  been  a  fixed  custom 
for  many  centuries,  it  must  be  considered  whether,  persuasion 
failing,  that  which  was  irregularly  introduced  may  not,  in  that 
sense  in  which  they  mean  it,  be  for  the  sake  of  peace  indulged  to 
them;  or  whether  the  Easterns  even  on  this  ground  are  justified 


]  18  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

in  refusing,  or  are  bound  to  refuse,  their  Communion  till  such 
time  as  the  Latins  return  to  the  ancient  and  oecumenical  prac- 
tice ?  This  case  of  the  unlawful  introduction  of  Azymes  is  much 
like  that  of  the  equally  irregular  introduction  of  Baptism  by  one 
immersion,  not  as  rejecting  the  sense  of  trine  immersion  which 
figured  the  three  equal  Persons,  but  as  varying  the  symbol  in 
order  to  express  another  part  of  the  truth,  that  is,  the  unity  of 
their  common  Divine  essence, 

VI.   Of  the  Form  of  Consecration  in  the  Liturgy. 

The  modern  Latins  have  been  in  the  habit  of  blaming  the 
Greek  and  other  Eastern  Liturgies  for  not  consecrating  by  the 
recital  of  Our  Saviour^s  words  of  Institution,  to  which  their 
Schoolmen  have  attached  the  whole  force  of  the  Consecration, 
so  as  to  make  it  improper  to  pray  afterwards  for  the  descent  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  to  change  the  Gifts.  And  though  they  seem 
at  length  to  have  yielded  to  the  overwhelming  force  of  the  evi- 
dence against  them  thus  far  as  to  allow  that  the  Eastern  Forms 
are  not  necessarily  heretical,  but  may  be  tolerated,  they  yet  con- 
tinue, wherever  they  can,  (as  in  the  case  of  various  United  Rites 
in  the  East,)  to  mutilate  the  Eastern  Forms  of  Consecration  and 
force  them  into  agreement  with  their  own.  And  indeed  it  is 
not  easy  to  see,  with  their  doctrine,  how  they  could  do  otherwise. 

But  we  may  set  aside  their  inaccurate  scholasticism,  or  correct 
it,  and  reduce  it  within  tolerable  limits,  so  that  it  shall  mean  no 
more  than  this,  that  as  the  Divine  word  ^'Increase  and  multiply,'" 
once  spoken  gives  force  to  all  marriages  to  the  end  of  time, 
without  constitutmg  of  itself  the  Form  of  Marriage,  so  also  in 
the  Eucharist  Christ's  w-ords  "  This  is  My  Body,''  instead  of 
leaving  nothing  for  the  Priest  to  do  afterwards  but  to  repeat 
them,  rather  imply  and  require  that  he  should  do  that  which 
Christ  Himself  did ;  that  is,  offer  the  Gifts  with  thanksgiving, 
and  pray  that  they  may  become  His  Body  and  Blood  now  also, 
as  then  when  He  made  them  to  be  so  Himself.  And  this  being  so 
understood,  the  question  remaining  for  us  wuU  be,  not  to  defend 
the  Greeks  who  are  plainly  right  in  doing  what  they  do,  but  to 
examine  how  far  the  Latins  may  be,  even  in  spite  of  themselves, 
excusable  or  tolerable,  though  they  seem  not  to  do  the  same. 

Now  if  any  Church  made  the  Nuptial  Benediction  to  consist 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS. 


119 


in  the  bare  recital  by  the  Priest  of  the  Divine  word  "  Increase 
and  multiplt//'  wrappiug  up  therein  her  own  prayer  that  this 
word  might  now  take  effect  by  His  grace  who  originally  spake 
it,  it  would  not  be  easy  to  show  that  such  a  Form  is  insufficient, 
or  absolutely  invalid,  even  though  Schoolmen  might  have  at- 
tached some  gross  and  superstitious  idea  to  the  mere  utterance  of 
the  words  themselves.  It  could  only  be  said  that  such  a  Form 
is  not  the  fullest  or  most  convenient  that  could  be  devised.  And 
the  same  will  hold  of  the  recitation  of  Christ's  words  of  Insti- 
tution in  the  Eucharist.  If  the  Roman  Church  wills  to  use 
them  in  such  a  way,  they  will  be,  even  alone  and  of  themselves, 
a  valid  Consecration,  not  because  their  recital  has  been  appointed 
by  God  as  an  instrument  to  work  the  change  of  the  elements, 
but  because  the  intention  with  which  they  are  recited  virtually 
contains,  though  it  does  not  outwardly  express,  that  oblation 
and  prayer,  or  invocation,  which  are  with  more  propriety  ex- 
pressed distinctly  in  all  other  Liturgies. 

But  perhaps  the  text  of  the  Roman  Mass  contains,  even  as  it 
stands,  an  implied  invocation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  elsewhere 
than  under  the  recital  of  the  words  of  Institution.  Such  an  in- 
vocation may  be  supposed  to  be  implied  either  just  before  the 
recital  of  the  words  of  Institution,  or  after  them.  For  just  be- 
fore the  recital  of  the  words  of  Institution  we  find  these  words : 

"  Accepta  habeas  lime  dona,  qum  Tibi  offerimus  .  .  .  Hanc  Ob- 
lationem  placatus  accipias  .  .  .  Quam  Oblationem  Tu  Domine  in 
omnibus  qucesumus  benedictam  acceptabilemque  facere  digneris, 
ut  nobis  Corpus  et  Sanguis  fiat  dilectissimi  Filii  Tui  Domini 
Nostri  Jesu  Christi  ;    Qui  pridie  quam  pateretur,"  ^c. 

And  after  the  recital  of  the  words  of  Institution  and  the  Ob- 
lation immediately  following  them  we  have  the  subjoined  petition  ; 

"  Supra  qua  propitio  vultu  respicere  digneins,  et  jube  .... 
prceferri  in  sublime  altare  Tuum ;  .  .  ,  ut  quotquot  ex  hdc  altaris 
participatione  sacrosanctum  Filii  Tui  Corpus  et  Sanguinem  sump- 
serimus  omni  benedictione  coelesti  et  gratia  repleamur." 

Now  if  we  take  i\ie  former  words  to  answer  to  the  Greek  Obla- 
tion and  Invocation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  (And  in  that  case  what 
follows  after  the  words  of  Institution  in  the  Latin  Mass  will 
answer  to"ET»  7rpoo-$epo|x=v  x.  t.  A.  that  is,  '' Further  we  offer" 
^c.,  in  the  Greek ;)  then  we  may  think  with  reason  that  it  is  all 


120  REMAllKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

one  whether  we  say  with  the  Uoman  Form  (and  with  the  Eng- 
lish Communion  Office,)  "  We  offer  these  Gifts,  and  j)ray  Thee  to 
bless  them  to  be  His  Body  and  Blood  ivlio  said,  This  is  My  Body, 
This  is  My  Blood;  This  do  in  remembrance  of  Me  :"  or  with  the 
Eastern  Litui-gies,  "  He  said  '  This  is  My  Body,  This  is  My 
Blood:  This  do  in  remembrance  of  Me.'  Wherefore  we  now 
offer  these  Gifts,  and  pray  Thee  to  send  down  Thy  Holy  Spirit 
upon  them  and  bless  them  to  be  His  Body  and  Blood" 

Oy,  if  we  take  what  in  the  Roman  Mass  precedes  the  words 
of  Institution  to  have  been  only  preparatory,  and  think  what  fol- 
lows after  them  to  correspond  with  what  follows  after  them  in 
the  Greek  Liturgies,  (as  some  may  be  inclined  to  do,  seeing  the 
close  resemblance  of  the  Oblation  which  follows  the  words  of 
Institution  in  the  lloman  IMass  to  that  following  the  same  words 
in  all  other  Liturgies,)  then  in  that  case  there  will  not  be  even 
the  slight  variety  of  order  to  be  reconciled.  The  only  difference 
will  be  this,  that  while  the  Greek  Invocation  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
after  the  words  of  Institution  and  the  Oblation  following  them 
is  explicit,  the  Roman  is  implicit  and  indirect,  wrapped  up  in  the 
prayer  "Supra  (ju(e propitio  vultu  respicere  digneris,  et  juhe  .  .  . 
praferri  in  sublime  altare  Tuum ;  .  .  .  ut  quotquot  ex  hdc  altaris 
participatione  sacrosanctum  Filii  Tui  Corpus  et  Sanguinem  sump- 
serimus  omni  benedictione  ccelesti  et  gratia  replea7nur.'"  At  the 
same  time  it  must  be  confessed  that  these  words,  as  they  stand, 
though  they  7nay  possibly  bear  such  a  sense,  yet  sound  much 
rather  as  if  the  Consecration  was  now  supposed  to  be  completed, 
and  remind  one  of  that  prayer  which  is  bidden  among  the  Greeks 
"for  the  Gifts  that  have  been  offered"  after  the  completion  of 
the  Consecration,  and  in  which,  as  here,  mention  is  made  of  the 
"  supercelestial  altar:"  "'TiT\p  xaJv  Trpo7iioixi(7QevTcov  xa.)  ayiacrSrvrcuv 
Tiy.i'MV  JMpuv,  OTTwg  6  Ozhi  ...  6  7rpocr5:^ajW,:voj  uOto.  e!j  to 
V7:=poi>paviov  xu)  vospov  avToiJ  Sii(Ticx.crTYjpiov,  ....  0iVTix.xTCi7TSft.iirj 
YjiMV  T*]i/  htav  %i<pfv  xa)  xj^v  ^aopsav  t&u  Trctvxylov  ZTvru/AaTOj.''^  So 
that,  if  there  has  been  no  alteration  (such  as  Greek  and  Angli- 
can writers  suppose  there  must  have  been,  but  which  we  had 
better  not  suppose  without  proof,)  it  seems  most  probable  that 
the  Invocation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  spoken  of  by  early  Latin 
writers  in  common  with  the  Greek  as  effecting  the  change  is 
wrapped  up  in  the  prayer  which  precedes  the  words  of  Institu- 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  121 

tion,  and  so  is  continued  and  closed  emphatically  by  the  recital 
of  these  words  themselves. 

VII.   Of  the  ])osition  of  the  Great  Oblation. 

Connected  with  the  question  of  the  form  and  the  moment  of  the 
Consecration  there  is  another,  respecting  the  Oblation.  For  ac- 
cording to  the  ideas  of  the  Latin  Schoolmen,  the  change  taking 
place  on  the  utterance  of  Christ's  words  of  Institution,  the 
Oblation  which  follows  immediately  after  them  in  the  Roman 
Mass  is  an  oblation  not  of  bread  and  wine  as  symbols,  but  of 
Christ's  very  Body  and  Blood,  And  this  will  equally  be  the 
case  whether  we  suppose  with  the  Schoolmen  the  consecration 
to  be  effected  by  the  mere  utterance  of  Christ's  words,  or  by 
the  Invocation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  wrapped  up  in  that  utte- 
rance and  in  the  prayer  preceding.  On  the  other  hand  the 
Oblation  of  the  Greek  and  of  all  other  Liturgies,  except  the  Roman, 
though  it  is  like  that  of  the  Roman  in  following  immediately  after 
the  words  of  Institution,  yet,  being  followed  itself  by  the  Invoca- 
tion of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  change  the  Gifts,cannot  be  supposed  to 
be  an  oblation  here  on  earth  of  Christ's  literal  Body  and  Blood  ; 
but  must  be  held  to  be,  so  far  as  the  earthly  altar  is  concerned, 
an  oblation  of  bread  and  wine  as  symbols  or  antitypes  of  that 
Sacrifice  which  is  ever  present  upon  the  heavenly  altar,  and 
which  the  Priest  below  also  offers  in  some  sense  even  before  the 
Gifts  are  changed  by  virtue  of  his  union  with  Christ. 

But  neither  here  is  there  really  any  doctrinal  difference  be- 
tween the  Greeks  and  the  Latins,  but  only  a  difference  of  ritual, 
and  of  relative  proportion  in  the  prominence  given  to  the  oblation 
before  or  after  the  Consecration  has  been  perfected.  For  though 
we  allow  that  the  great  Oblation  in  the  Latin  Mass  occurs  after 
that  the  Consecration  has  been  really  perfected,  and  so  is  an 
oblation  of  Christ's  very  Body  and  Blood,  while  the  great  Obla- 
tion of  the  Eastern  Liturgies,  though  in  words  nearly  identical, 
yet  occurring  before  their  Consecration  is  perfected,  can  be  no 
more  than  an  oblation  of  bread  and  wine,  still  it  is  to  be  re- 
marked that  both  the  Latin  Mass  has  had  also  another  previous 
preparatory  oblation  answering  to  the  great  Oblation  of  the 
Greeks,  only  less  emphatic,  and  standing  before  instead  of  after 
Christ's  words  of  Institution ;  and  the  Greek  Liturgies,  on  the 


122  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

other  hand,  have  also  a  continuance  of  the  Oblation,  answering 
to  the  great  Oblation  of  the  Roman  Mass,  only  less  emphatic, 
after  their  Consecration  is  perfected.  (''"'Etj  -Trpoai^spofxev  aoi  t>jv 
Aoyjx^v  TavTYiV  XuTpEtxv  VTTsp  T60V  Iv  Triorej  avaTraueraju.s'vwv,'"  x.  t.X.) 
For  the  Greek  Priest,  even  after  the  Invocation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  the  change  of  the  Gifts,  that  is,  after  the  consummation 
of  the  Sacrifice,  continues  still  to  offer  and  to  plead  that  same 
Oblation  which  he  had  made  indeed  before,  but  which  has  now 
acquired  by  Christ's  presence  on  the  altar  a  new  sense  and 
depth,  as  is  clearly  expressed  by  St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  in  his 
Catechetical  Lectures,  when  he  says  that  those  most  solemn 
prayers  which  are  made  immediately  after  the  Consecration 
both  for  the  departed  and  for  the  living  on  earth  derive  no  small 
efficacy  from  the  presence  of  the  Eternal  Victim  on  the  altar. 
And  this  is  fully  equivalent  to  the  idea  of  the  great  Oblation  of 
the  Roman  Mass  after  the  Consecration. 

Of  course  if  any  one  should  suppose  an  Invocation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  change  the  Gifts  to  be  implied  in  the  prayer 
"  Jube  h(ec  prtp/erri/'  ^c:  which  occurs  in  the  Roman  Mass  after 
Christ's  words  of  Institution  and  the  Oblation  following  them, 
he  would  then  have  all  the  three  parts  of  the  Consecration  in  the 
Roman  Mass  corresponding  exactly  both  in  order  and  sense 
with  the  same  three  parts  in  the  Greek ;  and  the  Roman  Oblation 
would  then  no  longer  be  of  Christ's  literal  Body  and  Blood, 
but,  like  the  Greek,  of  the  symbols  of  bread  and  wine.  But 
there  would  still  even  then  remain  in  the  Roman  Mass,  as  in 
the  Greek,  the  same  thing  in  sense ;  that  is,  a  continuance  of 
the  Oblation  after  the  Consecration  in  the  Prayer  following, 
"  Communicantes,"  ^r.  However,  it  is  much  more  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  our  Lord's  words  were  always  regarded  in  the 
Roman  Mass  as  the  emphatic  termination  of  the  Consecration, 
and  that  the  Latin  Schoolmen  of  the  middle  ages  followed  upon 
the  whole  the  true  traditional  sense  of  their  Ritual,  than  to  sup- 
pose without  proof  that  they  invented  their  theory  of  Christ's 
words  being  the  Form  of  Consecration  arbitrarily,  in  contraven- 
tion of  the  wording  and  traditional  meaning  of  their  Mass,  and 
then  gave  a  totally  new  sense  to  the  Oblation,  and  otherwise 
mutilated  this  most  solemn  of  all  Services  merely  to  make  it  con- 
sistent with  their  theory.     This  is  too  great  an  improbability. 


BETWEEN  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  LATINS.       123 

But  whatever  view  be  taken  of  the  matter,  this  is  certain,  that 
both  Easterns  and  Westerns  agree  in  the  doctrine  that  the 
Sacrifice  and  Oblation  is  consummated  in  the  strictest  sense  by 
the  change  of  the  Gifts  itself:  and  hence  it  follows  that  neither 
does  the  making  of  a  distinct  oblation  by  the  Priest  afterwards 
(if  such  an  oblation  be  made,)  really  add  anything  essential,  nor 
does  the  omission  of  any  such  distinct  oblation  (if  no  such  obla- 
tion be  made,)  really  take  away  anything  essential.  The  differ- 
ence can  be  only  in  the  presence  or  absence  of  an  outward  ritual 
exhibition  of  that  which  necessarily  exists  in  both  cases  alike  in 
virtue  of  the  Consecration  itself. 

VIII.   Of  Communion  under  one  kind  only. 

However  blameable  may  be  the  Latin  practice  of  giving  the 
holy  Communion  to  the  laity  under  one  kind  only,  it  cannot 
reasonably  be  pretended  that  the  laity  are  thereby  deprived  of 
the  benefit  of  the  Sacrament  altogether.  For  all  Christians 
would  admit  unhesitatingly  that  if  in  any  case  it  were  impossible 
for  a  man  to  Communicate  in  both  kinds,  (as  in  some  rare  cases 
of  sickness  it  may  be,)  it  would  be  allowable  and  right  to  Com- 
municate in  one  kind  only;  and  that  any  one  so  Communicating 
might  confidently  trust  to  God  to  give  him  the  whole  benefit  of 
the  Sacrament,  Christianity  being  a  religion  not  of  forms  but  of 
spirit.  And  for  the  laity  among  the  Latins  the  discipline  of 
their  Church  is  really  a  necessity.  The  only  question  for  the 
Greeks  to  consider  is,  whether  the  fault  and  abuse  of  the  Latin 
Clergy  in  so  withholding,  without  any  real  necessity  to  excuse 
them,  one  kind  from  the  laity  is  so  great  that,  if  they  refuse  to 
correct  it,  it  is  alone  a  sufficient  reason  and  justification  for  re- 
fusing to  Communicate  either  with  them  or  with  the  laity  who 
are  wronged  by  them. 

If  indeed  any  Christians  refused  to  receive,  or  any  Clergy 
refused  to  administer,  in  both  kinds  in  order  to  symbolize  any 
heresy,  (as,  for  instance,  pretending  that  the  use  of  wine  was 
unlawful,)  it  might  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  withdrawing  from 
their  Communion.  But  the  motive  for  the  maintenance  of  their 
present  usage  among  the  Latins  is  well  known  by  the  Greeks  to 
be  reverence,  though  it  may  be  a  mistaken  reverence ;  the  very 
same  reverence  indeed  which  moved  nearly  all  the  Easterns, 


134  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

since  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  to  a  shghter  innovation, 
namely  that  of  giving  the  two  kinds  to  the  laity  mixed.  And 
this  abuse  of  the  Latins,  though  of  much  later  origin,  may  rea- 
sonably be  comprehended  with  the  rest  under  that  general 
judgment  of  so  many  learned  and  holy  men  of  the  Eastern 
Church,  that,  if  only  the  Creed  he  restored,  all  the  other  errors 
and  abuses  of  the  Latins  may  be  borne  with  and  winked  at  by 
the  Eastern  Church  for  the  sake  of  unity,  however  much  she 
may,  and  must,  desire  and  labour  for  their  correction.  The 
like  may  be  said  of  their  custom  of  depriving  young  children  of 
the  holy  Communion,  which  has  already  been  alluded  to  in 
speaking  of  the  holy  Chrism  or  Confirmation,  which  the  Latins 
delay  (and  together  with  it  the  first  Communion,)  till  children 
have  reached  the  age  of  seven  or  eight  years  at  the  least,  often 
much  longer. 

IX.    Of  the  state  of  the  Saints  before  the  last  Judgment. 

With  regard  to  the  admission  of  the  Saints  to  heaven  and  to 
the  beatific  vision  before  the  final  resurrection  and  judgment,  it 
is  difficult  to  understand  how  any  quarrel  should  have  arisen  : 
for,  popularbj  speafiing,  one  finds  exactly  the  same  language  on 
this  subject  received  in  both  Churches.  If  the  Latins  have 
sometimes  pressed  this  language  too  far,  so  as  to  impair  the 
proportion  of  sound  doctrine,  this  can  never  make  it  reasonable 
for  the  Greeks  to  run  into  the  contrary  extreme,  and  by  w-ay  of 
opposing  a  Latin  error  to  condemn  and  reject  altogether  lan- 
guage which  is  consecrated  in  their  own  Hymnologies,  and 
which  is  constantly  proceeding  out  of  their  own  mouths. 

X.   Of  Purgatory. 

The  doctrine  of  Purgatory  is  taught  by  the  Latins,  and  is  re- 
jected by  the  Greeks.  The  doctrine  of  the  Fathers  and  of  the 
early  Church,  of  the  present  Greek  or  "  Orthodox  "  Church,  and 
of  all  the  other  separated  Eastern  Churches,  is  this,  that  gene- 
rally speaking,  and  upon  the  whole,  the  state  of  the  faithful 
departed  is  a  state  of  light,  and  rest,  and  peace,  and  refresh- 
ment, of  happiness  far  greater  than  any  belonging  to  this  life, 
yet  inferior  to  that  which  shall  be  enjoyed  after  the  resurrection 
and   the  final  Judgment.     The  doctrine  of  the   Latins,  on  the 


BETAVEEN    TUE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  125 

other  hand,  is  this,  that  generally  speaking,  and  upon  the  whole, 
the  state  of  the  faithful  departed  is  a  state  of  penal  torment, 
differing  from  that  of  hell  only  in  the  certainty  of  future  deliver- 
ance. Here  is  certainly  in  appearance  a  very  wide  difference 
between  the  two  Churches  :  yet  perhaps  even  here  the  difference 
is  not  radically  one  of  doctrine,  but  only  of  relative  proportion. 
For  there  being  many  differences  and  degrees  among  the  souls 
of  those  who  die  with  the  root  or  habit  of  repentance  and  faith 
and  hope  and  charity  in  them,  and  many  venial  sins  and  effects 
of  mortal  sins  adhering  in  different  proportions  to  departing 
souls,  there  are  souls  in  the  loiver  ranks  of  them  that  may  yet 
be  saved  of  which  the  Greeks  can  think  with  hope,  but  yet 
cannot  think  of  them  as  being  at  once  absolutely  and  unmixedly 
in  a  state  of  happiness.  But  of  such  they  think  as  needing  the 
prayers  and  oblations  of  the  Church  upon  earth  to  procure  their 
refreshment,  and  to  lighten  them  ''  tmv  xu-rsyovTuiv  aurovg 
uviapuiv."  On  the  other  hand  the  Latins  think  of  the  higher 
souls  that  they  either  go  straight  through  Purgatory,  or  are 
speedily  released  from  it,  and  that  in  proportion  as  any  soul  is 
higher  its  state,  though  still  upon  the  whole  a  state  of  penal 
torment,  perhaps  even  in  material  fire,  contains  more  and  more 
of  those  same  elements  of  comfort  and  refreshment  which 
according  to  the  Greek  theology  predominate  for  the  souls  of 
the  faithful  generally.  The  elements  then  in  each  of  the  two 
theologies  are  the  same;  in  the  Greek  happiness,  with  some 
admixture  nevertheless  of  suffering ;  in  the  Latin  suffering, 
with  some  admixture  nevertheless  of  refreshment  and  happiness  : 
only  the  proportions  in  which  these  two  elements  of  happiness 
and  suffering  are  thought  and  spoken  of  are  different  and  con- 
trary. And  even  this  contrariety  may  perhaps  admit  of  recon- 
cilement, as  follows : 

It  may  be  that  in  earlier  ages,  when  Christians  were  generally 
better,  the  world  openly  opposed  to  the  Church  and  divided 
from  it,  and  discipline  within  the  Church  stricter,  there  would 
have  been  some  incongruity  in  the  Church  or  her  members 
dwelling  on,  or  even  perceiving,  any  admixture  of  pain  and  sad- 
ness in  the  state  of  faithful  souls  after  death  :  while  on  the  con- 
trary when  the  world  had  entered  into  the  Church,  when  the 
general  deterioration   of  manners  among  Christians  was  raani- 


1.26  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

fest,  and  discipline  either  obsolete  altogether  or  reduced  to  a 
mere  shadow  of  what  it  had  been^  it  was  natural  and  inevitable 
that  more  should  be  thought  of  the  state  of  the  lower  classes 
of  souls  which  might  yet  be  saved,  and  that  their  seemingly 
immense  multitude  should  give  a  tone  and  colour  to  the  general 
view  taken  by  the  Church  of  the  intermediate  state. 

If  such  a  view  should  be  admissible,  it  would  seem  to  follow 
that  an  eighth  (Ecumenical  Council  would  not  necessarily  find 
any  great  difficulty  in  defining  limits  within  which  the  doctrine 
concerning  the  intermediate  state  should  be  held  to  be  dogmati- 
cally decreed,  or  left  open  to  a  variable  phraseology.  The  Greek 
Church  already  joins  together  the  two  contrary  ideas  in  her 
solemn  prayers  for  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  and  might  equally 
allow  the  whole  body  of  existing  Latin  phraseology  on  this  sub- 
ject to  coexist  in  one  Communion  together  with  the  whole  body 
of  her  own,  so  long  as  no  particular  words  or  ideas  were  so  un- 
duly pressed  or  generalized  as  to  subvert  the  older  and  more 
Catholic  proportion  of  doctrine. 

XI.   Of  Indulgences. 

That  the  Bishop  or  the  Church  can  grant  Indulgences  or  re- 
laxations of  the  canonical  penances  imposed  on  sin  in  this  world, 
all  Churches  and  Sects  which  impose  penances  at  all  for  sin 
agree.  And  as  canonical  penances  varied  for  difierent  sins,  and 
might  last  many  years  or  even  a  whole  life  for  single  acts  of  sin, 
there  is  no  essential  absurdity  in  granting  Indulgences  for  very 
long  periods,  even  for  hundreds  or  thousands  of  years,  unless  it 
be  conceived  to  be  impossible  (which  unhappily  is  only  too  pos- 
sible,) that  our  sins  should  have  merited  whole  ages  of  penance. 
Nor  is  the  granting  of  such  Indulgences  even  for  the  dead, 
either  absolutely,  if  they  have  been  formally  bound  before  death 
to  such  and  such  specific  terms  of  penance,  and  have  died  with 
their  penance  unperformed,  or  conditionally  and  vaguely,  so  far 
as  they  may  have  died  liable  to  penance,  any  error  or  absurdity, 
though  it  may  be  difficult  to  express  in  words  the  precise  efi'ect 
of  such  an  act  of  the  Church  on  the  souls  to  which  it  is  applied. 
Because  God  is  above  all  outward  means,  even  of  His  own  Sac- 
raments, and  may  be  trusted  to  to  correct  all  errors  and  to 
supply  all  defects,  it  docs  not  therefore  follow  that  the  Church, 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  127 

which  is  visible,  need  neglect  to  do  any  outward  act,  or  need 
suppose  it  void  of  efficacy  if  she  does  it.  And  if  by  her  mouth, 
that  is,  by  the  Canons,  she  has  spoken  outwardly  a  word  to  hind, 
and  has  measured  her  bond  by  rjears,  months,  and  days,  it  is  as 
suitable  that  she  should,  even  for  the  dead,  indulge  or  remit  the 
bond,  as  that  she  should  say :  "  He  is  dead  indeed  (or  may 
have  died,)  in  the  bond  of  excommunication,  and  with  penances 
unperformed,  and  now,  though  we  may  trust  he  is  pardonable, 
it  is  not  worth  while  to  rehabilitate  his  memory,  seeing  that 
God  is  Almighty,  and  will  set  all  right  with  his  soul.''  Even  the 
Anglican  Church,  which  rejects  Purgatory  and  Indulgences,  and 
omits  Prayers  for  the  Dead,  retains  the  power  and  the  usage  of 
removing  the  bond  of  excommunication  after  death.  As  to  In- 
dulgences viewed  as  applications  of  the  merits  of  Christ  and 
His  Saints  and  of  particular  good  works  of  the  living  for  the 
benefit  of  the  departed,  no  one  can  'question  that  the  Church, 
and  even  individuals,  in  some  sense,  can  make  such  application, 
that  is,  can  seek  from  God  the  benefit  of  those  souls  towards 
which  the  intention  is  directed. 

If  one  speculates  on  the  efi'ect  of  remissions  of  excommu- 
nication or  of  penance  on  the  departed,  the  Greeks  will  think 
that  the  former  may  sometimes  have  the  effect  of  facilitating  the 
due  but  suspended  dissolution  of  the  body,  and  that  both  may 
bring  to  the  soul  some  comfort  or  remission  "  tcov  xuTsy^ovraiv 
avTYjv  aviapuiv"  as  they  think  also  of  the  general  prayers  and 
oblations  of  the  Church  on  earth,  and  of  the  faithful  living, 
with  respect  to  the  lower  and  more  imperfect  souls  of  those  that 
may  yet  be  saved.  And  the  Latins  will  naturally  express  the 
same  thought  in  the  form  of  a  remission  of  the  pains  of  Purga- 
tory. And  thus  far  we  need  not  suppose  any  irreconcileable 
difference  of  doctrine. 

But  here,  to  avoid  popular  misconception,  it  must  be  remarked 
that  neither  are  the  canonical  years  of  penance  which  a  sinner 
may  reckon  up,  or  try  to  reckon  up,  as  due  to  his  sins,  to  help 
himself  to  horror  and  compunction,  necessarily  actual  years,  nor 
are  the  Indulgences  which  are  their  correlatives  literally  or  es- 
sentially connected  with  time,  though  they  seem  to  be  measured 
or  expressed  by  it.  The  object  of  penance  is  perfect  contrition, 
and  the  cleansing  of  the   soul :  and  whether  that  object  is  at- 


128  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

tained  in  a  few  days  or  weeks  (as  on  the  reading  of  the  Apostle's 
letter  and  the  excommunication  of  the  incestuous  Corinthian, 
and  as  was  commonly  the  case  in  the  earliest  age  of  the  Church 
when  penance  was  in  itself  much  sharper,  but  as  measured  by 
time  much  shorter  than  afterwards,)  or  in  seven,  ten,  or  twenty 
years,  or  by  a  whole  life  of  public  penance,  (as  in  later  ages  when 
theChui'ch  was  getting  to  be  more  mixed  with  the  world,)  it  is  one 
and  the  same  thing.  St.  Paul  was  afraid  even  after  a  short 
time  that  the  penitent  might  be  swallowed  up  with  overmuch 
sorrow.  In  later  times  the  Church  was  not  afraid  by  decreeing 
from  one  to  thirty  years'  excommunication  even  for  single  sins 
that  she  should  endanger  the  swallowing  up  of  her  penitents  by 
overmuch  sorrow.  But  in  any  particular  case  where  the  object 
seemed  sooner  to  be  obtained  she  left  power  to  the  Bishop  to 
"grant  Indulgence,"  that  is,  to  measure  penance  not  by  time  but 
by  its  effect.  And  later  still,  when  severity  had  been  gradually 
stretched  to  the  utmost,  and  had  failed,  and,  iniquity  abounding 
more  and  more,  it  became  impossible  to  enforce,  or  to  perform, 
or  even  to  count  the  penances  decreed,  the  Church  reverted  for 
her  practical  discipline  in  great  measure  to  this  simplest  and 
deepest  principle,  that  for  fallen  Christians  true  contrition  and 
amendment  is  necessary  for  salvation.  But  in  order  to  give  some 
idea,  however  inadequate  and  figurative,  of  the  difficulty  of  resto- 
ration, and  the  need  of  our  utmost  exertions,  in  proportion  to 
the  number  and  nature  of  our  sins,  she  kept  before  the  eyes  of 
men  those  penances  measured  in  days  and  years  which  she  had 
used  to  curb  vice,  to  inform  the  conscience,  and  to  assist  repen- 
tance, in  former  times  before  her  discipline  had  been  quite  out- 
stripped by  the  abounding  of  iniquity  in  the  Christian  world.  An 
Indulgence  then  of  so  many  days  or  years  has  reference  not  to 
any  actual  rotations  of  the  earth  on  its  axis  or  round  the  sun 
supposed  to  be  sensible  in  the  intermediate  state,  but  to  canon- 
ical years  of  penance:  and  canonical  years  of  penance  even  on 
earth  are  only  a  form  varying  in  different  ages  for  giving  some 
idea  of  the  distinctions  of  sins  and  the  difficulty  of  attaining 
perfect  contrition.  Nor,  again,  has  an  Indulgence  reference 
only  to  such  years  of  penance  as  actually  imposed,  but  as  im- 
posable :  nor  has  it  reference  in  the  case  of  its  application  to 
the  dead  to  any  duty   of  actually  performing  the  years,  if  not 


BETWEEN  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  LATINS.       129 

indulged,  which  is  impossible,  but  to  that  essential  residuum 
(whatever  it  be,)  of  such  a  bond  which  souls  may  have  carried 
with  them  into  the  intermediate  state.  The  measurement  of 
this  residuum  by  time,  as  regards  the  souls  themselves,  is  a 
mere  figure  of  speech,  as  if  one  said,  "The  bond  of  that  Can- 
onical penance  which,  if  they  were  living  on  earth,  and  lived 
long  enough,  and  did  not  merit  an  earlier  indulgence,  and  the 
discipline  of  such  and  such  a  century  was  in  force,  they  would 
have  in  strictness  to  perform  for  their  sins."  But  the  reason 
for  retaining  the  varieties  and  distinctions  of  time  in  speaking 
of  Indulgences  is  for  the  sake  of  the  living,  to  work  upon  their 
minds  by  ideas  which  are  definite,  whereas  a  vague  and  general 
promise  oi" some  remission  or  advantage"  in  proportion  to  their 
exertions,  without  specifying  how  much  remission  or  how  much 
exertion  in  each  case,  might  be  in  danger  of  producing  less  effect. 

Viewed  thus.  Indulgences  may  be  considered  as  a  sort  of  spiri- 
tual bonbons  which  the  Church  scatters  to  her  children,  with  dif- 
ferent values  and  different  works  marked  upon  them,  in  the  hope 
of  stirring  them  up  more  or  less  towards  the  great  objects  of  at- 
taining true  contrition,  and  doing  good  works,  and  towards 
charitable  intercession  for  the  souls  of  others.  And  thus  neither 
need  we  say  that  the  essential  doctrine  involved  in  the  Roman 
practice  of  granting  Indulgences  is  false  or  inadmissible  for  the 
Greeks,  nor  that  the  motive  of  the  Roman  Church  and  the  Popes 
in  granting  them  is  an  evil  one,  whatever  abuses  may  have  at- 
tached to  them. 

Even  in  the  sale  of  Indulgences  itself,  which  was  forbidden  as 
an  abuse  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
the  essential  conditions  for  gaining  the  Indulgence  sold  remained 
the  same  as  in  all  other  cases  :  "Whosoever  being  realhj  contrite 
and  in  charity  with  all  men,  shall  devoutly  perform  this  or  that 
religious  act,  or  do  this  or  that  good  work  specified."  There 
was  no  licence  or  indulgence  for  sin,  as  Protestants  falsely  sup- 
pose, no  pardon  granted  beforehand  for  sins  as  yet  uncommitted, 
or  to  impenitent  sinners,  but  a  commutation  into  money  or  some 
good  work  or  service  to  the  Cross  and  to  rehgion  of  Ecclesiasti- 
cal penances  to  persons  who  should  have  such  dispositions,  and 
do  such  acts  as  might  justify  a  mitigation  of  penance  even  if  no 
alms  were  given,  or  no  such  service  performed.     This  might  be 

K 


130  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

a  vei'y  gross  abuse,  and  no  doubt  was  :  as  may  be  also  the 
sale  of  very  different  Indulgences  (to  eat  butter,  eggs,  &c., 
during  the  Fasts,)  sometimes  confounded  with  it.  But  it  was 
a  very  different  thing  indeed  from  the  enormous  wickedness 
into  which  it  was  commonly  exaggerated  by  the  Protestants. 

We  may  conclude  then  that  even  if  the  Roman  Church  re- 
fused to  abate  anything  of  her  present  doctrine  and  practice  on 
the  subject  of  Indulgences,  even  in  deference  to  the  wish  of  an 
(Ecumenical  Council,  still  there  is  nothing  in  either  absolutely  to 
prevent  the  Greeks  from  communicating  with  her. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Easterns  might  perhaps  hope  that  in 
a  General  Council  this  latest,  and  most  artificial,  and  most  easy 
to  be  misunderstood  and  abused  of  all  Roman  developments 
might  be  pruned  somewhat,  and  the  remissions  and  blessings  of 
the  Church,  especially  as  applicable  to  the  souls  of  the  departed, 
reduced  to  some  general  form,  the  measurement  by  days  and 
years,  and  the  word  "plenary  "  perhaps,  being  disused.  At  any 
rate,  as  the  whole  question  is  one  not  of  doctrine,  but  of  taste 
and  discretion  in  the  manner  of  moving  men  to  good  works  and 
dispositions,  the  Easterns  might,  without  any  breach  of  unity, 
refuse  to  admit  the  use  of  Indulgences  within  their  own  juris- 
diction ;  and  if  they  were  mistaken  and  Rome  right  in  her  prac- 
tical judgment,  the  loss  would  be  their  own. 

XII.   Of  the  Last  Unction. 

As  regards  the  Unction  of  the  Sick,  it  is  true  that  the  Easterns 
have  kept  more  exactly  than  the  Latins  to  the  primitive  idea 
and  practice,  calling  in  not  one  Priest  only  but  the  "  Priests  " 
of  the  Church,  that  there  may  be  united  prayer,  and  regarding 
the  whole  act  as  a  sacramental  intercession  to  obtain  healing, 
whereas  the  Latins  (as  the  Eastern  Divines  sometimes  object,) 
make  it  rather  a  preparation  for  expected  death. 

Nevertheless,  as  the  Easterns  do  not  seek  to  be  Anointed  on 
every  trivial  occasion  but  when  they  think  themselves  danger- 
ously ill,  and  defer  for  the  most  part  as  long  as  possible  to  own 
that  they  are  in  danger,  the  common  practice  among  them  differs 
not  much  from  that  of  the  Latins.  And  as  it  has  become  a 
custom  for  all  when  they  are  manifestly  in  danger  to  send  for 
the  Priests  to  anoint  them,  and  as  the  great  majority  of  them 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS. 


131 


that  so  send  and  are  so  anointed,  in  compliance  with  the  custom, 
are  not  "  raised  up  again  "  to  health  of  body  in  this  life,  but 
die,  it  is  clear  that  ordinarily  and  for  the  majority  of  cases 
Christian  faith  and  charity  can  only  hope  that  at  any  rate  the 
remains  of  sin  (so  far  as  sin  is  connected  with  disease  and  decay 
and  death,)  may  through  that  solemn  Intercession  and  Anoint- 
ing be  forgiven  to  the  soul.  And  this  is  precisely  the  idea 
which  is  now  put  most  prominently  forward  in  the  Latm 
Church. 

And  the  Latins,  on  the  other  hand,  by  no  means  deny  nor 
exclude  that  idea  and  purpose  which  seems  to  be  predominant 
in  the  instruction  given  by  St.  James  in  his  Epistle,  and  which 
still  predominates  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Eastern  Church.  They 
teach  that  Extreme  Unction  sometimes  (though  rarely  per- 
haps now,)  obtains  not  only  forgiveness  for  the  remains  of  sin, 
but  also  a  grace  of  bodily  healing  :  and  that  it  is  not  unlawful, 
if  any  one  have  the  requisite  faith,  to  desire  to  be  anointed  in 
order  to  obtain,  if  it  so  please  God,  even  a  bodily  recovery. 
The  doctrinal  discordance  then  between  the  two  Churches  is  by  no 
means  irreconcilable,  but  on  this,  as  on  many  other  points,  con- 
sists merely  in  a  diflference  of  proportion. 

As  the  name  "Extreme  "  or  "Last  Unction,'"  (which  has  some- 
times been  borrowed  from  the  Latins  by  Greek  and  Russian 
divines,)  is  often  misunderstood  by  Protestants,  it  may  be 
remarked  that  the  epithet  "Extreme"  or  "Last"  does  not 
imply  that  the  sick  person  must  be  at  the  point  to  die,  or 
as  they  say  in  extremis,  in  order  to  be  anointed,  but  it  distin- 
guishes the  unction  of  the  sick  from  other  earlier  unctions. 
For  Christians  are  anointed  with  oil  even  before  Baptism ;  and 
this  is  the  first  unction  :  and  after  Baptism  they  are  anointed 
with  the  Holy  Chrism ;  and  with  oil  also  on  various  occasions 
which  need  not  here  to  be  enumerated :  and  lastly  when  they 
are  dangerously  sick  and  thought  to  be  drawing  near  to  death, 
they  are  prayed  over  and  anointed  :  and  this,  from  its  being 
relatively  posterior  to  all  the  preceding,  is  called  by  the  Latins 
the  "  Extreme  "  or  "  Last  Unction."  The  Easterns  call  it  the 
"  Oil  of  Prayer,"  or  the  "  Meeting  of  the  Priests  over  the  Sick  ;" 
{Evyihaiov  or  Xvvolsixjig  in  the  Service  Books  of  the  Greeks, 
in  those  of  the  Slavonic  people  Eleosvieshchenies  or  Soborovdnie.) 

k2 


132  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

XIII.   Of  the  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy. 

The  law  of  celibacy  imposed  upon  the  Latin  Clergy  was 
already  noted  as  a  fault  by  the  Council  held  at  Constantinople 
in  Trullo,  a.d.  691,  the  canons  of  which  the  Easterns  receive  as 
oecumenical.  But  besides  that  these  canons  have  never  been 
so  received  in  the  West,  this  very  same  Council  in  Trullo  en- 
acted for  the  Easterns  themselves  a  restriction  similar  in  kind 
and  differing  only  in  extent  from  that  imposed  on  the  Latin 
Clergy.  In  direct  contravention  of  earlier  canons,  or  at  least 
by  a  very  violent  wresting  of  them,  {aly^ixaXctiTt^ova-cx.  avTovg 
vpo;  TO  KuXriTspov,)  the  Council  in  Trullo  forbade  Bishops  for 
the  future  to  live  with  their  wives.  And  after  themselves  show- 
ing so  plainly  that  they  regarded  the  existing  discipline  on  this 
subject  as  open  to  change,  it  was  somewhat  unreasonable  in  the 
Greeks  to  quarrel  with  the  Latins  because  they  had  chosen  to  go  a 
little  further  in  the  same  direction,  and  to  impose  on  Priests 
also  and  on  Deacons  the  same  restriction  which  the  Council  in 
Trullo  imposed  only  on  Bishops.  The  Easterns  might  indeed 
think  this  a  dangerous  experiment  and  inexpedient ;  but  so  long 
as  they  were  not  required  to  do  the  same,  they  could  not  deny 
to  the  Westerns  that  right  which  they  had  always  exercised  of 
using  their  own  discretion  and  making  canons  of  discipline  for 
themselves.  If  indeed  there  had  been  any  Churches  in  the 
West  still  retaining  the  earlier  discipline,  and  the  See  of  Rome 
had  been  invading  their  liberty  and  trying  to  force  upon  them 
its  own  custom,  it  would  have  been  natural  and  not  unjust  for 
an  Eastern  Council  to  take  their  part.  And  some  such  Churches 
(of  the  Greek  rite)  there  were,  no  doubt,  on  the  coasts  of 
southern  Italy,  and  elsewhere,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eleventh 
century.  But  when  we  read  of  the  Popes  and  Latin  Bishops  de- 
priving the  secular  clergy  of  their  wives,  this  has  not  ordinarily  or 
chiefly  respect  to  lawful  wives  married  according  to  the  liberty  of 
the  ancient  discipline  before  Ordination,  but  either  to  mere  concu- 
bines, or  to  wives  married  in  despite  of  the  canons  of  the  universal 
Church  after  Ordination. 

XIV.   Of  the  Latin  Fasts. 
Another  ground  of  quarrel  against  the  Latins  is  their  manner 
of  fasting ;  that  they  observe   the   Saturday  in  every  week,  and 


BETWEEN  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  LATINS.       133 

not  the  Wednesday;  that  they  eat  flesh  up  to  the  very  begin- 
ning of  Lent ;  and  begin  Lent  itself  on  the  Wednesday  instead 
of  the  Monday ;  that  their  monks  eat  flesh  ;  and  that  during 
the  Fasts  they  allow  the  use  of  fish,  milk,  butter,  cheese,  eggs, 
and  the  like.  But  besides  that  these  diff"erences  are  mere  mat- 
ters of  rite  and  custom,  they  are  all  much  older  than  the  division 
between  the  Churches.  The  weekly  fast  of  the  Wednesday  and 
Friday  may  indeed  have  been  universal  in  the  very  earliest  times, 
but  the  custom  of  substituting  the  Saturday  or  Sabbatli  for  the 
Wednesday  is  nevertheless  of  very  remote  antiquity  at  Rome, 
(having  existed  even  in  the  fourth  century,)  and  for  ages  it 
occasioned  no  complaint  or  schism.  And  though  an  oecumeni- 
cal Council  holden  in  the  East  may  have  forbidden  Christians 
to  fast  on  any  Sabbath  in  the  year,  except  one,  the  Great  Sab- 
bath, still  no  such  Eastern  canons  of  discipline,  eveti  though 
made  by  cecumenical  Councils,  were  ever  held  to  bind  the  West 
propria  vigore,  that  is,  unless  they  were  there  formally  admitted 
and  received.  And  apart  froai  the  consideration  of  mere  autho- 
rity, the  idea  of  preparing  for  the  weekly  festival  of  Our  Lord's 
resurrection  by  a  weekly  imitation  of  the  fast  of  the  Great 
Friday  and  the  Great  Sabbath  is  no  less  pious  and  appropriate 
than  the  weekly  observance  of  Wednesday  as  the  day  on  which 
Christ  was  betrayed,  and  Friday  as  the  day  on  which  He  was 
crucified ;  an  observance  which  no  doubt  makes  flesh-days  and 
fasting-days  to  alternate  at  convenient  intervals. 

If  we  look  to  the  strict  requirements  or  recommendations  of 
the  Latin  rite,  the  difference  will  be  reduced  within  narrov/ 
limits.  For  on  the  one  hand  we  shall  find  that  the  Latins  have 
not  absolutely  dropped  the  observance  of  the  Wednesdays.  On 
the  contrary  at  the  Four  Seasons  (when  they  hold  their  Ordina- 
tions of  Clergy,)  during  the  season  before  Christmas  called  Ad- 
vent, and  at  other  times  of  extraordinary  supplications,  Wednes- 
day is  the  day  that  they  select  to  be  added  as  a  day  of  fasting 
or  abstinence  to  the  Friday  and  Saturday.  And  on  the  other 
hand  the  Easterns,  celebrating  the  Liturgy  on  the  Sabbath,  and 
not  eating  till  it  is  over,  that  is,  till  about  the  middle  of  the  day, 
come  very  nearly  up  to  the  abstinence  of  the  Latins,  who  eat  fish 
and  eggs  and  cheese  and  butter  as  early  as  at  midday  on  the 
Sabbath,  and  so  do  not  fast  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  Easterns. 


134  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

As  for  the  time  of  leaving  off  meat,  or  beginning  Lent,  and 
for  greater  or  less  indulgences  in  ])oint  of  diet  during  the  fasts, 
such   differences  have  existed  from  the  beginning  not  only  be- 
tween the  East  and  the  West,  but  also  between  lesser  particular 
Churches.     And    among   the    Latins    themselves   a   particular 
Church,  the  Church  of  Milati,  has  preserved  from  very  ancient 
times  even  to  the  present  day  the  custom  of  leaving   off  flesh 
and  beginning  Lent  some  days  later  than  the  rest  of  the  Wes- 
tern Churches,  without  any  breach  of  charity  on  this  account ; 
though  the  other  Westerns  might  more  reasonably  be  offended 
at  the  particular  of  the  Church  of  Milan  so  varying  from  them- 
selves than  the  Easterns  at  a  similar  variation  of  the  whole  Wes- 
tern Church.     And  as  for  any  abuse  or  relaxation  in  the  West 
contrary  not  only  to  the  Greek  but  even  to  the  milder  Latin  rule, 
such  as  the  sale  of  Indulgences  in  Spain  and  South  America,  the 
relaxation  of  fasting  to  Roman-Catholics  living  among  Protes- 
tants or  Infidels,  as  in  England  and  in  France,  (w^here  they  are 
allowed  by  Dispensation  to  eat  meat  four  days  in  the  week  even 
during  Lent,)  such  concessions  to  the  overbearing  force  of  na- 
tional or  local  custom,  or  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  are  not  peculiar 
to  the  Latins.     The  Easterns  also  under  similar  circumstances 
neglect  all  or  nearly  all  that  is  prescribed  by  their  own  discipline, 
and  are  not  refused  the  Sacraments  or  put  to  any  serious  pen- 
ance in    consequence.     The  only   difference   is  this :  For   the 
Westerns  the  Ecclesiastical  authority  itself  condescends  to  the 
pressure  of  society,  and  yields  much    in  order  to  retain  some- 
thing which   it  reserves,  or  at  any  rate   in    order  to  save  the 
weaker  sort  from  the  certainty  of  sinning  by  disobedience  to 
a  law  not  absolutely  essential,   and  to  assist  them  that  are  of 
stronger  faith  towards  obtaining  from  society  some  measure  of 
toleration  for  obedience :  whereas  in  the  East,  no  modification 
by  authority  being  admitted,  the  whole  of  the  prescribed  observ- 
ances are  in  danger  of  being  swept  away  together  so  soon  as  the 
torrent  of  social  corruption  comes  in  conflict  with  them.     The 
educated  and  civilized  Greek  or  Russian  of  the  higher  classes, 
from   the  moment  that  the  custom  in  his  own  grade  of  society 
sets  against  the  observance  of  the  fasts  of  his  Church,  or  that 
he  finds  himself  living  among  Latins  or  Protestants,  takes  freely 
all  those  liberties  and  dispensations  which   are  sometimes  in- 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  135 

diilged  by  authority  to  Latins,  and  a  great  deal  more  besides, 
without  knowing  where  to  stop,  or  having  any  distinct  reason 
for  stopping  at  all,  when  he  has  once  ventured  to  grant  dispen- 
sation to  himself  without  any  real  necessity. 

XV.   Of  the  free  use  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

That  there  is  some  difference  between  the  two  Churches,  in 
their  spirit,  that  is,  and  in  their  tone  towards  the  laity,  on  this 
subject  cannot  be  denied.  In  the  West  there  is  a  general  assump- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  enemies  of  the  hierarchy  and  a  disagree- 
able sort  of  consciousness  among  the  people  and  clergy  themselves 
that  there  is  something  in  the  letter  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  or 
at  least  in  the  free  study  and  circulation  of  them,  unfriendly  to  the 
existing  system  of  doctrine  and  disciphne.  And  in  consequence 
there  is  observable  in  the  hierarchy  a  total  absence  of  zeal  to 
promote  the  study  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  especially  through 
translations.  Among  the  Easterns  on  the  contrary  there  is  no 
such  disagreeable  feeling  of  divergence  or  opposition  between  the 
Scriptures  and  the  Church,  but  whoever  can  is  encouraged  freely, 
and  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  procure  and  study  the  Holy  Books, 
whether  in  the  original  languages  or  in  approved  versions. 

Yet  neither  here  is  there  any  very  deep  opposition  between  the 
teaching  or  discipline  of  the  two  Churches.  The  Latin  Church 
has  never  discouraged  any  person  that  may  be  capable  from  pro- 
curing and  studying  the  Scriptures  in  the  original  text,  or  in  those 
ancient  translations  (such  as  the  Septuagint  and  the  Vulgate,) 
which  have  become  as  the  original  text  for  the  Greeks  and  the 
Latins.  On  the  other  hand  the  Eastern  Church  has  never  encou- 
raged Christians  to  buy  or  use  those  unauthorized  translations 
which  have  been  made  by  heretics,  and  which  are  circulated  by 
them,  often  with  corruptions  and  perverse  interpretations,  and  al- 
ways with  the  idea  of  insinuating  some  allowance  or  respect  for 
their  own  spurious  Christianity.  And  if  the  one  Church  (like  the 
early  Fathers,)  dwells  more  on  the  general  benefit  of  the  know- 
ledge and  study  of  the  Scriptures,  while  the  other  dwells  more 
on  the  mischief  to  be  apprehended  from  heretical  versions,  and 
from  the  study  even  of  the  genuine  Scriptures  with  improper 
dispositions  of  mind,  and  therefore  is  indifferent  or  hostile  to 
the  multiplication  of  translations  into  living  languages,  this  dif- 


136  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

ference  is  perhaps  no  more  than  local  and  temporary,  arising 
chiefly  out  of  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  West,  which 
during  the  last  three  centuries  have  thrown  the  Latin  Church 
into  an  unnatural  and  controversial  attitude.  And  certainly,  if 
anything  were  wanting  to  justify  her,  it  would  be  found  in  the 
use  made  of  the  Bible  by  those  who  have  rebelled  against  her 
authority,  and  in  the  results  which  have  followed  and  which 
still  follow  daily  from  their  use  of  it.  Perceiving  with  the  eyes 
of  the  spirit  the  strong  and  fierce  devil  that  was  entering  into 
the  Teutonic  nations,  and  was  tempting  them  to  abuse  the  print- 
ing-press and  the  Scriptures  to  their  hurt,  the  Roman  Church 
might  seem,  and  may  still  seem  to  superficial  or  prejudiced  ob- 
servers to  direct  against  the  Scriptures  in  themselves  that  hostility 
which  is  really  directed  against  the  evil  spirit  by  whose  hand 
and  mouth  they  are  abused.  But  if  ever  that  smoke  from  the 
pit  which  now  envelopes  the  West  should  be  dispersed,  and  the 
sun  of  faith  should  shine  out  again,  it  is  possible  that  the  tone 
of  the  Roman  Church  respecting  the  free  use  of  the  Scriptures 
may  undergo  a  great  change. 

XVI.   Of  Church  Services  in  a  tongue  no  longer  understood  by 

the  People. 

Reflections  similar  to  the  above  may  have  place  also  with  re- 
gard to  that  unwillingness  which  the  Roman  Church  has  shown 
to  give  to  difi'erent  nations  the  Services  of  Religion  in  their  own 
spoken  languages.  The  Eastern  Church  inclines  the  contrary 
way  ;  and  her  divines  sometimes  extol  her  superiority  over  the 
Latin  on  this  account.  But  the  fault,  if  it  be  a  fault,  of  adhering 
rigidly  for  ritual  purposes  to  an  antiquated  or  even  to  a  dead  lan- 
guage is  by  no  means  peculiar  to  the  Latins.  It  is  something 
far  more  general,  and  well  nigh  universal :  so  much  so,  as  to 
suggest  the  idea  that  there  may  probably  be  some  Divine  eco- 
nomy in  the  permission  that  a  custom  so  contrary  to  the  spirit 
and  practice  of  the  primitive  Christians  as  well  as  to  reason  and 
propriety  should  have  become  so  generally  and  so  permanently 
prevalent.  The  modern  Greeks,  the  Russians  Servians  and  Bul- 
garians, and  the  Georgians,  of  the  OrthodoxCommunion,  the  Nes- 
toriaus  of  Kurdistan,  the  Armenians,  the  Monophysites  of  Syria 
Persia  and  India,  the  Arab-Copts  of  Egypt,  and  the  Abyssinians, 


BETWEEN  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  LATINS.       137 

all  have  their  worship  and  Church  Books  in  dialects  either  abso- 
lutely unintelligible  or  only  partially  intelligible  to  the  people.  It 
is  only  in  some  exceptional  cases  (and  that  within  the  last  century,) 
as  in  the  adoption  of  the  Wallachian  or  Romanian  spoken  language 
instead  of  the  Slavonic  in  the  Danubian  Principalities,  and  in 
the  translation  of  the  Church  Books  into  Turkish  for  some  con- 
gregations which  have  forgotten  Greek  in  Asia,  and  into  Arabic 
in  Syria,  that  the  Eastern  Orthodox  Church  has  shown  any  dis- 
position to  accommodate  Divine  worship  to  the  changing  dialects 
of  the  people. 

It  is  true  indeed  that  the  old  Hellenic,  the  old  Georgian,  and 
the  Slavonic  languages  are  very  far  from  being  absolutely  unin- 
telligible to  the  modern  Greeks,  Georgians,  or  Russians,  as  Latin 
is  absolutely  uninteUigible  to  the  Teutonic  or  semi-Teutonic  na- 
tions of  the  West,  to  the  Latin  Slavonians  of  Poland  and  Bohemia, 
and  to  the  Magyars  of  Hungary.  But  these  nations  after  all  com- 
pose only  a  part,  though  an  important  part,  of  Western  Christen- 
dom ;  and  there  is  another  large  part  consisting  of  nations,  (such 
as  the  Italians  and  Sicilians,  the  Spaniards,  and  the  Portuguese, 
with  their  colonies  in  South  America,)  in  which  the  Latin  lan- 
guage, though  changed  and  blended  with  a  Teutonic  element, 
still  predominates :  and  for  these  latter  peoples  the  difference 
between  the  Church  Latin  and  their  own  spoken  or  written  lan- 
guage, is  of  the  same  kind  (though  greater,)  as  that  which  exists 
between  the  Hellenic  of  the  Greek  Ritual  and  the  modern 
Romaic. 

Perhaps  as  the  general  standard  of  Christian  faith  and  charity 
sank  lower,  and  the  Church  came  to  be  more  intimately  blended 
with  the  world,  it  became  in  a  secondary  sense  good  for  Chris- 
tians that  the  full  light  of  earlier  and  better  times  should  be 
partially  darkened  or  withdrawn  :  and  that  instead  of  being 
forced  upon  all  to  the  greater  condemnation  of  many,  it  should 
be  half  shown  and  half  hidden,  so  as  to  be  an  incentive  to  exer- 
tion and  a  reward  for  them  that  have  the  grace  to  search  for  it 
to  their  greater  profit. 

And  as  for  the  West,  though  the  historian  Fleury  may  have 
wondered  why  Rome  did  not  act  by  the  nations  of  modern  Eu- 
rope in  the  spirit  of  the  primitive  Church,  by  giving  to  each,  so 
soon  at  least  as  its  language  was   well  formed,   the   Scriptures 


138  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

and  the  Services  in  its  own  tongue,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  there 
were  considerations  of  great  force  to  forbid  any  such  change. 
Even  in  first  communicating  Christianity  to  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
the  Germans,  and  other  peoples  in  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth 
centuries  it  had  been  thought  best  to  attempt  to  draw  them 
through  the  Church  language  into  the  Latin  family,  and  to  make 
some  sacrifice  of  popular  edification  for  the  sake  of  consolidating 
more  strongly  the  unity  of  the  Church.  And  the  allowance  of 
their  own  language  to  the  Slavonians  of  Moravia  was  no  excep- 
tion :  for  it  was  a  concession  to  people  who  would  not  be  refused, 
and  not  a  voluntary  boon.  But  when  the  nations  and  king- 
doms of  modern  Europe  were  at  length  formed,  and  their  lan- 
guages fixed,  the  disturbing  influences  of  their  separate  nation- 
alities became  so  strong,  that  they  could  hardly  be  kept  together 
in  Ecclesiastical  unity,  even  though  they  had  all  one  and  the  same 
faith,  Church  law,  and  Ritual,  and  one  common  Clergy,  with  a 
language  of  its  own,  interpenetrating  them  all  and  concentrated  in 
one  common  independent  centre  at  Rome.  Under  such  circum- 
stances any  change  which  should  tend  to  strengthen  still  further 
the  separate  nationalities,  and  to  divide  and  nationalize  that 
common  Clergy,  which  like  the  citizens  of  Old  Rome  being 
mixed  everywhere  with  the  Provincials  bound  the  whole  into 
unity,  would  be  manifestly  most  dangerous :  and  exactly  the 
same  reasons  which  would  move  an  heresiarch  or  a  tyrant  who 
wished  to  sin  with  impunity  to  introduce  the  use  of  the  vulgar 
tongue  for  purposes  of  religion,  to  abolish  the  celibacy  of 
the  clergy,  and  to  banish  monks  and  friars,  would  weigh  with 
Bishops  and  Popes  to  make  them  oppose  or  forbid  such  changes. 
Whether  indeed  under  other  circumstances,  if  nations  and  king- 
doms had  been  heartily  devoted  to  the  Roman  See  and  to  religious 
unity,  and  had  shown  no  tendencies  to  separation,  Rome  might 
have  acted  difi'erently;  or  whether  even  yet  at  some  future 
period,  when  nations  and  states,  as  such,  shall  have  hopelessly 
and  irrecoverably  apostatized,  and  the  remnant  of  sincere  be- 
lievers are  everywhere  and  of  necessity  Ultramontanes,  (if  that  is 
to  be  so,  as  some  think,)  Rome  may  still  act  differently,  and  en- 
courage or  even  enjoin  a  freer  use  of  the  vernacular  languages 
of  each  people  in  the  services  of  religion, — are  questions  on 
which  every  one  may  speculate  as  he  pleases. 


BETWEEN  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  LATINS.       139 

XVIT.   Of  "  Persecution." 

Greeks  and  Russians  often  enough  inveigh  against  the  perse- 
cuting spirit  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  dwell  upon  the  cruel- 
ties of  the  Inquisition,  and  upon  certain  well-known  passages  of 
history,  with  as  much  liveliness  as  the  Protestants  themselves : 
and  they  contrast  these  horrors  with  the  mild  and  tolerant  Chris- 
tianity of  their  own  Church.  But  here  again  on  closer  inspec- 
tion the  supposed  difference  will  be  found  to  vanish. 

Far  from  being  any  invention  of  the  Popes  or  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  the  practice  of  restraining  heresy  by  civil  penalties, 
and  even  by  capital  punishments,  originated  with  the  Christian 
Emperors  of  Constantinople,  and  was  based  upon  principles  of 
civil  government  universally  recognized,  and  sanctioned  both  by 
natural  reason  and  by  Divine  legislation.  Among  the  Athenians, 
the  most  intelligent  people  of  antiquity,  it  was  made  the  ground 
of  a  capital  accusation  against  Socrates,  that  he  corrupted  the 
youth  by  dishonouring  the  religion  of  the  State  and  introducing 
new  Gods  :  and  Socrates,  the  wisest  and  best  of  Gentile  sages, 
though  he  denied  the  charge,  yet  by  no  means  denied  that  the 
punishment  would  be  suitable  if  the  charge  were  true.  And 
among  the  Hebrews,  if  even  a  brother,  or  son,  or  daughter,  or 
wife,  or  friend,  were  to  entice  any  man,  though  it  were  secretly, 
to  serve  other  Gods,  he  was  not  to  be  spared  nor  concealed,  but 
the  hand  of  the  nearest  relative  was  to  be  first  upon  him  to  stone 
him  to  death,  and  afterwards  the  hand  of  all  the  people.  And 
if  any  city  followed  or  harboured  such  innovators,  that  city  was 
to  be  smitten  with  the  sword  and  utterly  destroyed,  with  all  its 
people,  their  cattle  and  property,  and  burned,  and  made  a  heap 
for  ever,  and  never  to  be  rebuilt.  Thus  they  were  commanded 
to  put  away  the  abomination  from  among  them,  and  to  avert 
the  fierce  anger  of  the  Lord,  {Deut.  xiii.) 

Nor  could  this  well  have  been  otherwise,  if  any  Government 
was  to  govern  the  whole  man,  the  whole  body  politic,  intelligently, 
with  a  view  to  its  real  good  and  happiness.  If  indeed  any  go- 
vernor were  a  mere  human  animal,  without  any  higher  idea  than 
that  of  material  wellbeing,  or  if,  while  perceiving  the  possible 
importance  of  religion,  he  were  unable  to  choose  between  conflic- 
ting creeds,  or  without  power  to  influence  his  subjects,  he  would 


14-0  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

necessarily  iu  governing  aim  after  only  such  inferior  and  partial 
wellbeing  as  lay  within  his  knowledge  and  his  power.  But  in 
proportion  as  any  ruler,  whether  the  father  of  a  family,  the  mas- 
ter of  a  house,  or  the  governor  of  a  State,  really  believes  any 
moral  or  religious  truth,  and  perceives  its  importance,  it  is  not 
only  right  but  natural  and  inevitable  that  he  should  do  all  he 
can  to  favour,  maintain,  and  promote  such  truth,  and  to  exclude 
repress  and  extirpate  all  contrary  error.  When  men  speak  or 
write  as  if  they  thought  otherwise,  their  words  only  publish 
that  they  are  themselves  destitute  of  belief,  or  at  least  of  power 
to  promote  their  belief,  or  that  they  are  inconvenienced  by  the 
existence  of  belief  joined  with  power  in  others.  Such  are  the 
clamorous  outcries  of  Roman -Catholics  (no  less  than  of  Protes- 
tants,) in  countries  where  they  are  not  dominant,  and  the  popular 
praises  of  religious  liberty  and  toleration  in  countries  where 
Protestantism  is  strong  as  a  negative  principle,  but  in  its  pos- 
itive forms  lukewarm  and  divided. 

But  though  the  principle  of  "  persecution  "  (as  it  is  called,)  is 
acted  upon  more  or  less  (according  to  their  power  and  discretion) 
by  all  governors  so  far  as  they  have  a  belief,  it  is  manifestly 
very  liable  to  be  misapplied  by  indiscreet  zeal  or  evil  passion. 
And  such  misapplication  of  it  has  at  various  times  and  in  various 
countries  occasioned  many  ineffectual  and  revolting  cruelties,  which 
have  commonly  rather  strengthened  the  opinions  they  were  inten- 
ded to  suppress,  and  have  excited  an  infinite  amount  of  miscon- 
ception and  abhorrence  against  the  principle  itself.  In  fact,  the 
occasions  really  justifying  the  extreme  application  of  this  princi- 
ple are  of  the  very  rarest  occurrence.  So  rare  are  they,  that  one 
may  almost  say  with  truth  that  the  infliction  of  capital  penalties 
for  offences  against  faith,  though  right  and  defensible  in  theory, 
is  in  practice  mischievous  and  wrong.  For  it  is  not  the  duty  of 
any  and  every  government  to  burn,  or  even  to  imprison  or  fine, 
every  heretic  and  schismatic  whom  it  has  the  power  to  seize, 
nor  under  any  or  all  circumstances  :  but  only  when  the  gover- 
nor and  his  people  are  as  yet  united  in  the  true  faith,  and  the 
evil  attacks  them  for  the  first  time,  so  that  it  is  possible  by  a 
few  summary  and  capital  punishments  to  destroy  it  in  the  bud 
or  egg,  (as  in  one  female  wasp  in  Spring  the  gardener  may  dc- 
stroy  a    whole  swarm,)   and  possible  also  by  a  striking  severity 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  141 

in  the  manner  of  the  punishments  to  impress  on  men  a  just 
sense  of  the  enormity  of  the  crime,  and  of  the  mischief  it 
threatens  to  society,  and  a  sakUary  fear  of  what  else  (if  tolerated, 
and  recommended  by  any  specious  qualities  in  the  heresiarchs,) 
might  appear  to  simple  people  innocent  or  even  attractive :  and 
lastly,  when  all  that  charity  and  zeal  can  devise  has  been  first 
tried  by  the  ministers  of  religion  to  convert  the  heresiarch,  and 
he  remains  obdurate.  These  conditions  are  clearly  indicated  by 
our  Saviour  Himself  in  the  parallel  case  of  the  severities  en- 
acted by  the  Mosaic  law  against  sins  of  uncleanness,  and  in  par- 
ticular against  the  crime  of  adultery.  For  when  they  brought 
to  Him  a  woman  taken  in  adultery,  and  questioned  Him,  saying, 
"  Master,  Moses  in  the  law  commanded  that  such  should  be 
stoned ;  but  what  sayest  Thou  ?"  He  taught  them  that  the  law 
indeed  was  good,  and  wise,  and  just,  yet  that  it  was  not  to  be 
executed  against  offenders  by  people  who  were  themselves  guilty : 
that  its  purpose  was  not  to  authorize  adulterers  or  idolaters  to 
stone,  or  burn,  or  persecute  one  another,  but  to  defend  the 
people  of  God,  while  as  yet  pure  from  such  sins,  and  united  in 
faith  and  obedience,  against  the  first  assault  and  contagion  of 
the  most  destructive  evils. 

So  then,  if  there  has  been  much  and  terrible  misapplication  of 
the  principle  of  persecution  in  the  West,  this  has  been  owing  to  the 
fault  of  particular  rulers  and  governments,  or  of  society  in  particu- 
lar ages  and  countries,  and  under  particular  circumstances,  not  to 
anything  false  or  evil  in  the  principle  itself,  nor  to  the  Church, 
which  (as  such)  merely  teaches  princes  the  abstract  truth  that  it  is 
their  duty  to  protect  their  subjects  against  heresy  no  less  than 
against  robbery  or  murder.  Neither  has  persecution  in  the  West 
been  exercised  only  by  Roman-Catholic  rulers  (in  whom,  being  a 
duty,  it  involves  no  evil  passion,)  but  equally  by  Protestants,  in 
whom,  being  contrary  to  their  ideas  of  justice,  it  is  an  inconsistent 
and  odious  atrocity.  And  if  on  the  other  hand  there  has  been  less 
heard  of  severities  from  Christian  rulers  in  the  Eastern  Church, 
and  less  feeling  excited  on  the  subject,  this  has  not  been  owing 
to  any  difference  in  the  instructions  she  has  given  to  kings  as  to 
the  principle,  but  simply  to  a  difference  of  circumstances.  Nor 
have  occasions  been  altogether  wanting  when  "  persecution " 
has  been  used  in  Eastern  Christendom,  and  that  too  at  the  de- 


142  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

niand  of  the  Clerg3^  That,  the  Greek  Emperors  of  Constantino- 
ple punished  heresy  by  death^  and  byburniug,  has  been  mentioned 
above :  and  in  the  History  of  the  Russian  Church,  in  her  very 
infancy,  a  case  is  recorded  which  shows  the  Russians  partici- 
pating in  the  same  views.  A  Monophysite  of  Armenian  origin, 
who  had  devoted  himself  for  many  years  with  singular  patience 
and  industry  to  sowing  the  seeds  of  a  subtle  and  imaginative 
heresy  which  was  to  unite  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  rites  under  the 
Monophysite  Creed,  after  once  recanting  before  a  Synod  of 
Bishops  at  Kieff,  having  relapsed,  and  remaining  obdurate,  was 
at  length  remitted  to  Constantinople,  as  a  subject  of  the  Greek 
Empire,  to  be  dealt  with  according  to  its  laws.  And  this  man, 
after  having  been  again  in  vain  exhorted  by  the  Greek  Clergy, 
was  burned  alive.  And  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
under  the  Grand  Prince  John  III.  of  Moscow,  when  a  deistical 
heresy  of  Jewish  origin  had  infected  numbers  of  the  Clergy,  and 
some  of  the  chief  servants  and  favourites  of  tlie  Sovereign,  (if 
not  the  Sovereign  himself,)  and  had  the  Primate  of  the  Church, 
whose  name  was  Zozimus,  among  its  adherents,  a  simple 
monk,  Joseph  the  Hegoumen  of  Volokolamsk,  by  his  letters  and 
exhortations  roused  the  sounder  part  of  the  Hierarchy,  forced 
the  assembling  of  a  Synod,  and  procured  the  condemnation  of  the 
heresy,  the  deposition  of  the  heterodox  Primate,  and  the  election 
of  another  who  was  orthodox.  And  when  the  Judaizers  evaded 
all  tests  by  readily  anathematizing  their  own  heresies,  while 
they  held  and  taught  them  all  the  same,  he  demanded,  as  the 
only  remaining  resource,  that  they  should  be  put  down  by  the 
civil  power  ;  and  actually  forced  the  Grand  Prince  to  give  up  his 
own  Secretary,  together  with  others,  to  be  burned  in  the  public 
place  at  Moscow.  It  is  true  that  the  zeal  of  this  Hegoumen 
Joseph  and  his  arguments  (arguments  which  he  enforced  by 
the  example  of  the  King  of  Spain,  whose  persecution  of  the 
Jews  was  then  noised  in  Russia,)  met  with  great  opposition, 
especially  from  the  heretics  themselves  and  their  favourers. 
These  naturally  enough  contended  that  the  only  arms  to  be  em- 
ployed against  religious  error  were  the  arms  of  meekness  and. 
persuasion  ;  and  that  nothing  could  be  more  unchristian  than 
for  the  civil  governor  to  use,  or  for  the  Clergy  to  suggest,  perse- 
cution.   Many  well-intentioned  moderate  men,  who  saw  not  the 


BETWEEN    THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    LATINS.  143 

real  nature  of  the  emergency,  added  strength  to  such  remon- 
strances. But  the  Hegoumen  carried  his  point.  Persecution 
was  used.  A  most  formidable  heresy,  one  of  the  most  subtle 
and  evasive  that  has  ever  appeared,  which  had  taken  deep  root, 
was  spreading  rapidly,  had  great  worldly  and  even  ecclesiastical 
advantages  on  its  side,  and  seemed  unassailable  by  ordinary  spi- 
ritual arms,  was  cut  short,  and  after  a  time  extirpated  by  perse- 
cution. And  the  monk  who  effected  this  is  celebrated  to  this 
day  in  consequence  as  a  Saint  of  the  Russian  Church. 

XVIII.   Of  the  Existence  of  7-eputed  Saints   and  '  Miracles   in 
both  Communions. 

At  present  the  Latins  commonly  make  light  of  those  Greek 
Saints  who  have  lived  since  the  breach  between  the  Churches,  and 
the  Greeks  make  light  of  the  Latin  Saints  who  have  lived  since  the 
same  time.  So  too  the  Latins  reject  Greek  miracles  and  Greek 
Icons,  and  the  Greeks  reject  those  of  the  Latins.  But  this  on 
both  sides  is  merely  in  consequence  of  the  division  :  and  the  ex- 
istence on  both  sides  of  reputed  Saints  and  miracles,  far  from 
being  an  impediment,  is  really  rather  an  assistance  towards  re- 
union. According  to  the  terms  of  the  Council  of  Florence  the 
Greeks  would  have  continued  to  honour  all  their  Saints  who  had 
lived  since  the  separation,  and  the  Latins  would  have  continued 
to  honour  theirs.  And  even  if  it  were  supposed  that  the  Greek 
Church  were  schismatical  and  the  Latin  Church  heretical,  still 
in  the  opinion  of  the  most  enlightened  theologians  it  would  by  no 
means  follow  that  sanctity  and  miracles  might  not  exist  in 
those  Churches.  For  though  in  ivilful  schismatics  or  heretics 
they  could  not  be  supposed  to  exist,  yet  in  individuals  and  gene- 
rations which  should  be  only  materially  in  schism  or  heresy,  and 
excusable  by  what  the  Latins  call  invincible  ignorance,  sanctity 
and  miracles  might  exist  to  any  extent.  And  so  not  only  of  the 
Greek,  but  even  of  the  Nestorian  and  Monophysite  Churches,  it 
may  be  admitted  by  Roman  Divines  that  perhaps  they  have 
produced  Saints,  and  may  have  witnessed  true  miracles.  But 
much  more  if,  as  we  have  been  supposing,  both  the  Greek 
and  the  Latin  Churches  are  parts  of  the  true  Catholic  Church, 
is  it  reasonable,  and  agreeable  to  our  theory,  that  they 
should    botli  have    continued   to  produce    reputed   Saints  and 


144  REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES 

miracles  since  the  time  of  theii  estrangement  in  the  ninth 
or  in  the  eleventh  century  to  the  present  day. 

One  class  of  reputed  Saints  and  miracles  however  there  is, 
which  are  really  obstacles  rather  than  assistances  to  union :  that 
is,  when  any  reputed  Saint  or  miracle  is  connected  with  the  di- 
vision itself,  and  even  seems  to  have  been  magnified  (by  the  one 
side  or  the  other,)  for  the  sake  of  the  division.  Thus,  though 
it  may  be  admitted  that  Photius,  Gregory  Palamas,  and  Mark  of 
Ephesus  were  great  and  learned  men,  and  that  they  defended 
the  orthodox  phraseology,  they  will  not  be  magnified  into  Saints 
except  by  such  as  wish  to  make  of  them  three  beams  or  wedges 
of  bitterness  to  keep  open  the  wounds  of  the  Church. 

Neither  does  the  existence  on  both  sides  of  a  vast  mass  of 
popular  legends  and  superstitions,  and  of  excesses  and  abuses 
connected  with  the  Invocation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  the 
Saints,  and  with  the  worship  of  Images  and  Pictures,  and  of 
Ilelics,  ofl^er  any  hindrance  to  unity,  though  now  the  Greeks  on 
the  one  side  and  the  Latins  on  the  other  seem  often  to  be  very 
free  (as  free  as  the  Protestants  themselves,)  in  blaming  and  re- 
jecting, and  even  in  ridiculing,  these  faults  in  their  rivals. 
Rather,  the  general  similarity  of  the  two  Communions  in  these  re- 
spects would  offer  great  facilities:  and  if  no  other  hindrances  stood 
in  the  way  of  peace,  they  would  accept  or  tolerate  one  another's 
kindred  superstitions  just  as  readily  as  they  now  reject  them. 
Whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  even  if  the  Anglican  Communion 
were  plainly  one  with  the  Greek  in  all  articles  of  faith,  there 
would  still  be  no  small  difficulty  in  the  way  of  a  solid  practical 
union  arising  from  the  uncongeniality  of  the  dominant  feeling 
in  the  two  Communions  with  regard  to  what  is  commonly 
called  superstition,  a  weakness  (so  far  as  it  is  a  weakness,) 
natural  to  man,  and  nowhere  catalogued  among  the  deadly  sins, 
nor  forbidden  by  any  one  of  the  ten  Commandments. 

XIX.   Of  Immutability  and  Novelty,  as  characteristic  of  the  two 
Churches  respectively. 

A  greater  appearance  of  difficulty  there  is  in  the  reconcile- 
ment of  the  stereotyped  antiquarianism  of  the  Greek  Rite,  pre- 
serving exactly  the  same  usages,  with  the  developments  and  ap- 
parent distortions  of  idea  and  practice  which  characterize  the 


BETWEEN  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  LATINS.       145 

present  Latin  Rite.  The  Greek  Rite  is  like  a  plant  or  building 
which,  though  covered  with  dust  and  somewhat  shrunk,  pre- 
serves all  its  original  shape  and  proportions :  the  Latin  on  the 
contrary  is  so  changed  that  it  is  rather  like  a  new  building,  con- 
structed in  part  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old.  Various  important 
parts  of  the  old  are  suppressed,  others  thrown  into  the  shade : 
things  which  did  not  exist,  or  which  were  unimportant  once, 
have  been  brought  forward  :  many  ancient  channels  of  grace 
and  edification  have  become  dry,  while  fresh  ones  have  been 
opened.  Instead  of  one  daily  public  Liturgy  on  one  altar  in 
the  church,  and  the  Bishop  con-celebrating  with  the  body  of  his 
Clergy,  we  now  see  multiplied  altars,  and  each  Priest  saying  his 
own  separate  Mass.  Then  there  is  the  reservation  of  the  Bles- 
sed Sacrament,  not  for  the  sick,  but  to  furnish  a  local  bodily 
presence  of  Christ  dwelling  in  and  sanctifying  the  building  of 
the  church,  with  all  the  train  of  applications  and  devotions 
which  follow  from  this,  the  Visitation  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament, 
with  meditation  and  adoration  before  it,  &c.  Again,  the  pecu- 
liar systematized  devotions  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  with  the  facts 
and  doctrines  on  which  they  are  partly  based,  and  other  like 
things,  which  occupy  at  the  present  day  so  large  a  place  in  Ro- 
man-Catholic religion,  but  which  were  totally  unknown  to  the 
ancients.  Some  doctrinal  points,  having  been  already  treated 
separately,  need  not  to  be  here  mentioned  over  again. 

The  general  aspect  is  this :  on  the  Western  side  apparent  no- 
velties, errors,  and  abuses,  (it  may  be,)  with  manifest  life  and 
energy ;  on  the  Greek  or  Eastern  side  apparent  preservation  of 
the  ancient  type  of  ritual  and  proportion  of  doctrine  with  for- 
malism and  coldness.  So  that,  if  unity  were  to  be  restored,  we 
must  suppose  either  that  the  Latin  life,  leaving  its  new  and  dis- 
torted channels,  would  return  to  run  in  the  older  channels  of 
the  Easterns,  while  the  Easterns,  preserving  what  they  have  al- 
ready, would  gain  ?in  increase  of  life  from  union  with  the  Latins ; 
or  else  that  there  is  some  real  connection  between  the  life  and 
the  novelties  on  the  one  side,  and  between  the  antiquarianism 
and  the  coldness  on  the  other;  and,  in  that  case,  that  the  Greeks 
after  their  reunion  with  the  West  would  probably  begin  to  inno- 
vate, and  to  admit  among  themselves  those  Latin  developments 
and  changes  of  proportion  which  they  now  reject  and  condemn. 

L 


146         REMARKS    ON    PARTICULAR    CONTROVERSIES,  ETC. 

And  if  we  suppose  this  latter  case,  and  that  in  a  number  of 
lesser  particulars  the  Eastern  Church  discovered  a  real  connec- 
tion to  exist  between  spiritual  life  and  the  changes  of  the  Latins, 
she  would  have  strong  grounds  for  extending  the  same  princi- 
ple so  as  to  accept  also  upon  it,  and  as  developments,  the  two 
great  doctrines  of  the  "Double  Procession"  and  the  Papal  Su- 
premacy :  which  would  imply  the  complete  reversal  of  those 
porportions  of  relative  superiority  and  inferiority  which  we  have 
hitherto  been  assuming  to  exist  between  the  theology  and 
ritual  of  the  two  Churches.  And  this  leads  to  another  subject, 
which  shall  be  treated  in  a  separate  Section. 


DISSERTATION   IX. 

OF  THE  BEARING  OF  THE  THEORY  OF  DOCTRINAL  DEVELOP- 
MENT ON  THE  CONTROVERSY  BETWEEN  THE  ORTHODOX 
AND  THE  ROMAN-CATHOLIC  CHURCHES. 

The  general  practice  of  Roman-Catholic  writers  has  been  to  de- 
fend all  the  existing  doctrines  of  their  Church,  and  (on  the  most 
important  points)  her  discipline  also  and  ritual,  on  the  ground 
of  tradition,  either  written  or  oral,  preserved  uninterruptedly 
from  the  beginning.  Enslaved  to  this  theory  they  have  too  often 
interpolated  and  corrupted  the  text  of  ancient  authors,  denied 
or  explained  away  their  plain  meaning,  and  given  a  false  colour- 
ing to  Ecclesiastical  history. 

The  Easterns  meanwhile,  the  Anglicans,  and  the  Protestants, 
seeing  a  plain  discrepancy  on  many  important  points  between 
the  modern  Roman-Catholic  Church  and  the  Catholic  Church 
of  earlier  times,  and  considering  the  efforts  of  Roman-Catholics 
to  deny,  or  dissemble,  or  account  for  such  a  discrepancy 
to  be  unsuccessful,  or  even  dishonest,  have  been  used  to 
strengthen  themselves  in  their  conviction  that  the  Latin  Church 
is  in  the  wrong,  and  that  they  themselves  (though  this  does  not 
at  all  follow,)  are  in  the  right. 

Recently  a  man  of  the  greatest  genius  and  learning  and  piety, 
who  had  long  endeavoured  to  defend  the  Anglican  Church  but  had 
found  it  indefensible,  being  attracted  by  many  considerations 
towards  Rome,  has  attempted  in  an  elaborate  essay  not  only  to 
account  for  the  discrepancy  existing  between  the  modern  Roman 
and  the  ancient  Church,  but  even  to  turn  this  very  discrepancy 
itself  into  an  argument  in  favour  of  the  Roman  Communion. 
This  he  does  by  means  of  a  certain  theory  of  development,  ac- 
cording to  which  the  Church  has  power  not  only  to  enlarge  her 

L  2 


148     BEARING  OF  THE  THEORY  OF  DEVELOPMENT 

definitions  of  the  faith  by  the  denial  of  new  heresies,  but  also  to 
expand  the  faith  itself  by  the  addition  of  fresh  positive  truths 
the  knowledge  of  which  may  have  grown  upon  her  with  time 
from  Scriptural,  logical,  and  supernatural  sources,  and  even  to 
contradict,  it  may  be,  on  some  points  the  confused  or  erroneous 
conceptions  of  earlier  ages.  Thus  the  "  Double  Procession  "  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  may  have  been  utterly  unknown;  the  Papal 
Supremacy  may  have  existed  only  as  a  dormant  seed,  an  unde- 
fined consciousness  in  the  local  Roman  Church ;  the  doctrine  of 
the  propriety  of  invoking  Saints  or  worshipping  Images  may 
have  been  the  one  unknown,  the  other  denied ;  the  dominant 
language  on  the  subject  of  the  state  of  the  departed  may  have 
been  inconsistent  with  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory ;  and  there 
may  have  been  no  other  Indulgences  in  existence  but  remissions 
of  canonical  penance;  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation,  so 
far  as  the  distinction  of  substance  and  accidents  was  concerned, 
may  have  been  an  open  question ;  the  Unction  of  the  Sick  may 
have  been  used  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  their  recovery ;  the  early 
history  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  the  notion  of  her  Assumption 
in  the  body  may  have  been  taken  from  apocryphal  writings, 
and  the  Fathers  may  have  supposed  that  she  was  conceived,  like 
the  rest  of  mankind,  with  original  sin  :  and  yet,  with  all  this, 
the  modern  Roman  doctrine  may  be  on  all  these  points,  by 
development,  the  true  and  necessary  consequence,  supplement, 
or  correction  of  the  primitive  belief. 

Without  attempting  to  explain  at  length,  or  to  pursue  further 
into  details  this  theory,  which  may  be  studied,  by  such  at  least 
as  can  read  English  or  French,  in  Dr.  Newman's  own  work,  a 
few  words  only  shall  be  said  of  its  bearing  upon  the  controversy 
between  the  Eastern  and  the  Latin  Churches. 

The  Eastern  Church  by  her  general  character  of  immobility, 
her  fixed  antiquarianism  even  in  ritual,  and  especially  by  her 
denial  of  the  "  Double  Procession,"  and  of  the  doctrines  of  Pa- 
pal Supremacy,  Purgatory,  and  Indulgences,  on  the  express 
ground  of  their  having  been  unknown  to  antiquity,  seems  to 
declare  against  the  doctrine  of  positive  development  in  point  of 
faith.  These  very  words,  "  Our  Church  knows  no  develop- 
ments : "  were  often  used  twenty  years  ago  by  a  late  Metropo- 
litan of  St.Petersburgh  in  speaking  of  the  addition  made  by  the 


ON    THE    DIVISION    OF    THE    EAST    AND    WEST.  1  19 

Latins  to  the  Creed,  Ou  the  other  hand,  by  her  doctrines  con- 
cerning the  Invocation  of  Saints,  and  the  Worship  of  Icons 
she  seems  to  many  to  have  admitted  the  principle.  "  These 
Greeks"  (said  an  Anghcan  clergyman,  long  resident  in  Uussia, 
to  the  writer,)  "  seem  to  think  that  the  Faith  is  like  a  great 
plant,  which  came  to  its  full  growth  only  at  the  time  of  the 
Seventh  Council."  And  if  so,  one  does  not  see  why  other  doc- 
trinal developments,  such  as  those  of  the  Double  Procession,  the 
Papal  Supremacy,  Purgatory,  and  Indulgences,  &c.,  may  not  be 
true,  and  to  be  accepted,  just  as  much  as  the  doctrines  concern- 
ing the  Invocation  of  Saints  and  the  Worship  of  Icons,  which 
can  no  more  be  defended  than  the  others  on  the  ground  of  ori- 
ginal, explicit,  and  unbroken  tradition. 

In  truth  the  Eastern  Church  cannot  remain  for  ever  a  stran- 
ger to  such  intellectual  questions  and  their  consequences.  And 
if  she  does  indeed  maintain  already  as  doctrines  of  faith  two 
articles  which  can  be  defended  as  such  only  on  the  ground  of 
development,  she  must  prepare  herself  to  re-examine  other  arti- 
cles which  she  has  hitherto  rejected,  and  to  see  whether  they  may 
not  be  admissible  on  the  same  ground.  Or  else,  if  she  still  per- 
sists in  denying  those  articles,  and  with  them  the  principle  of 
development  on  which  they  now  claim  to  rest,  she  must  find 
some  other  tenable  ground  on  which  to  rest  her  own  doctrines  con- 
cerning the  Invocation  of  Saints  and  the  Worship  of  Icons  :  as, 
for  instance,  if  she  were  distinctly  to  teach  that  these  are  not 
doctrines  of  the  faith  properly  so  called  at  all,  but  only  second- 
ary opinions  or  doctrines  I'ightly  decreed  and  enforced  by  the 
Church  respecting  practical  usage  and  ritual. 

Members  of  the  Eastern  Church  will  sometimes  seem  to  hesi- 
tate between  these  two  alternatives,  and  will  say  that  as  for  the 
doctrines  of  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  the  Son, 
Purgatory,  and  Indulgences,  if  they  were  defined  or  developed 
by  a  General  Council,  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Worship  of  Icons 
has  been  defined,  they  would  admit  them  as  a  matter  of  course  : 
but  that  they  cannot  admit  the  Papal  Supremacy  as  defining 
and  developing  either  these  or  any  other  doctrines,  or  as  acting 
and  ruling  of  itself  and  independently,  apart  from  and  even  con- 
trary to  the  decrees  of  former  General  Councils.  But,  if  the 
principle  of  development  be  admitted   at   all,  one  does  not  see 


150     BEARING  OF  THE  THEORY  OF  DEVELOPMENT 

how  any  individual  or  any  local  Church  can  set  limits  to  its 
operation,  or  dictate  to  the  Spirit  which  animates  the  Church 
and  throws  up  her  successive  developments  that  developments 
shall  bud  and  shoot  forth  only  through  the  meetings  and  decrees 
of  General  Councils.  AVho  can  say  that  the  constitution  and 
government  itself  of  the  Church,  no  less  than  her  doctrine  and 
ritual,  may  not  be  the  subjects  of  development  ?  and  that  the 
same  Spirit  which  at  one  time  spoke  and  ruled  chiefly  through 
Saints  and  Fathers,  through  local  and  General  Councils,  may 
not  in  later  ages  speak  and  rule  chiefly  through  one  central 
Chair  and  Oracle,  that  is  through  the  person  of  St.  Peter's  suc- 
cessor at  Rome  ?  The  principle  of  development  being  granted, 
this  may  very  well  be  :  and  all  that  Christians  can  do  is  to  judge 
as  well  as  they  can  whether  the  moral,  spiritual,  and  reasonable 
signs  in  favour  of  this  or  that  asserted  development  are  such  as 
they  may  safely  go  upon  in  accepting  it. 

Of  course,  so  long  as  Rome  seems  to  maintain  her  former 
antiquarian  attitude  towards  the  Eastern  Church,  and  to  dictate 
to  her  for  acceptance  her  own  modern  additions  or  changes 
either  with  unreasoning  violence  or  on  the  untenable  ground  of 
continuous  tradition,  the  Eastern  Church  may  not  feel  herself 
obliged  (though  she  ought  to  be  ready  to  try  and  judge  all  doc- 
trine if  she  is  really  superior,)  to  examine  closely  what  appears 
as  yet  only  as  a  tolerated  theory  or  school  within  the  Roman 
Communion.  But  a  time  will  probably  come  when  this  theory, 
the  consequences  of  which  are  too  vast  and  important  to  allow 
of  its  being  held  in  abeyance,  will  either  be  plainly  and  gene- 
rally maintained,  or  rejected  and  condemned.  If  indeed  it  should 
be  rejected  within  the  Roman  Communion,  the  Eastern  Church 
will  have  no  cause  to  examine  a  theory  of  which  she  thinks  her- 
self to  have  no  real  need,  and  which  is  rejected  even  by  those 
who  do  manifestly  need  it.  But  if  it  ever  comes  to  be  received 
and  carried  out  fairly  to  its  consequences  in  the  Roman  Com- 
munion, it  will  involve  such  a  change  of  attitude  and  aspect  in 
that  Communion  towards  the  Eastern,  as  will  make  it  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  Easterns  to  consider  it  with  attention.  For  it 
will  be  no  longer  the  same  thing  to  reject  the  novelties  of  Ro- 
man-Catholicism when  proposed  on  new  grounds  and  in  a  new 
temper,  as  it  has  been  hitherto  to  reject  them  when  proposed  on 


ON    THK    DIVISION    OF    THE    EAST    AND    WEST,  151 

grounds  manifestly  false,  and  with  a  temper  and  spirit  not  likely 
to  make  those  false  grounds  attractive. 

Supposing  then  the  theory  of  development  to  be  received  in 
the  Roman  Communion,  the  future  language  of  that  Communion 
to  the  Easterns  will  probably  be  something  like  this :  "  The 
Church,  though  infallible  in  essentials,  yet  suffers  to  an  extent 
which  it  is  difficult  to  limit  by  the  sins  and  imperfections  of  her 
members,  by  those  of  nations  as  well  as  of  individuals,  by  those 
of  particular  hierarchies  and  Churches,  and  even  of  the  Papacy 
itself,  as  well  as  by  those  of  laymen.  In  the  long-standing 
schism  between  the  Greeks  and  the  Latins,  the  Roman  See  and 
the  Eastern  Patriarchates,  it  may  be  confessed  that  besides  jealou- 
sies connected  with  races  of  men  and  political  governments, 
with  hierarchical  jurisdiction,  and  with  ritual  customs,  there  has 
been  also  one  very  deep  cause  of  misunderstanding  which  has 
never  yet  been  properly  or  sufficiently  acknowledged ;  that  is, 
the  ignorance  on  both  sides  of  the  principle  and  law  of  develop- 
ment ;  an  ignorance  which  made  us  Latins,  even  if  we  were 
intrinsically  in  the  right  in  what  we  sought  to  teach  or  to  im- 
pose upon  the  whole  Church,  to  be  outwardly  and  apparently  in 
the  wrong,  and  you  Greeks,  even  if  you  were  intrinsically  wrong 
in  rejecting  our  Latin  novelties,  to  be  outwardly  and  apparently 
in  the  right ;  that  is,  according  to  the  principle  then  held  in 
common  on  both  sides,  that  every  doctrine  ought  to  be  proved 
by  explicit  and  continuous  tradition,  and  that  whatever  could 
not  so  be  proved  ought  to  be  rejected.  For  the  past  therefore 
we  are  willing  that  there  should  be  a  complete  amnesty.  Far 
from  calling  you  heretics  or  schismatics  any  longer,  we  confess 
that,  if  the  principle  of  unchangeableness  formerly  received  on 
both  sides  had  been  true,  you  would  have  been  all  along  the 
orthodox  and  we  the  heretics  or  schismatics ;  for  you  alone  have 
acted  consistently  with  that  principle  throughout,  and  we  were 
acting  inconsistently  with  our  own  generally-received  principles 
when  we  would  have  forced  upon  you  what  was  new.  And 
though  we  now  think  that  the  principle  of  unchangeableness 
formerly  held  on  all  sides  was  in  fact  erroneous,  and  that  we, 
though  wrong  as  to  the  grounds  on  which  we  rested  and  en- 
forced our  novelties,  were  yet  right  in  the  things  themselves,  we 
are  willing  to  take  upon  ourselves  the  whole  blame  of  the  schism 


152      BEARING  OF  THE  THEORY  OF  DEVELOPMENT 

for  the  past :  and  for  the  future  we  demand  only  that  forgetting 
and  dismissing  from  your  minds  all  the  misdirected  violence 
and  hostility  we  have  shown  against  you,  and  all  our  ineffectual 
and  sometimes  perhaps  dishonest  attempts  to  demonstrate  our 
doctrines  to  have  been  delivered  by  universal  tradition  from  the 
beginning,  you  will  now  consider  impartially  and  attentively  the 
new  grounds  upon  which  we  rest  the  same  doctrines,  and  the 
doctrines  themselves  in  the  new  aspect  and  bearing  which  they 
will  have  as  based  upon  these  new  grounds.  And  if  you  should 
be  able,  upon  sufficient  consideration,  to  come  to  such  a  conclu- 
sion as  we  desire,  then  the  unity  of  the  whole  Church,  East  and 
West,  Greek  and  Latin,  will  be  thereby  restored  at  once ;  and 
some  changes  will  be  desired  and  adopted  by  yourselves  which 
we  shall  regard  as  great  improvements,  and  which  will  open  to 
you  fresh  springs  of  spiritual  grace  and  life,  from  which  you  are 
now  shut  out  not  so  much  by  any  fault  of  your  own  as  by  our 
past  faults  towards  you,  and  by  a  mistake  or  ignorance  common 
to  us  both.  Thus  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit  from  the  Son, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Papal  Supremacy,  the  doctrines  of  Purgatory 
and  Indulgences,  and  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  which  you  now  deny  or  doubt,  (and  rightly  upon 
that  older  theory  of  explicit  tradition  which  was  commonly  re- 
ceived in  times  past,)  will  cease  to  be  objectionable  to  you. 
Varieties  of  discipline  and  ritual  such  as  the  permission  of 
Baptism  by  one  immersion,  or  even  by  aflfusion,  the  restriction 
of  Confirmation  to  the  Bishop,  the  postponement  of  that  Sacra- 
ment and  of  the  First  Communion  of  children  till  they  have 
learned  the  Catechism,  the  use  of  Azymes  in  the  Eucharist,  the 
Consecration  (in  the  same)  by  the  recital  of  Christ^s  words  of 
Institution  and  not  by  any  direct  invocation  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  giving  of  the  Holy  Communion  under  one  kind  only  to  the 
laity,  and  many  other  like  things,  will  cease  to  be  any  cause  of 
offence,  or  may  rather  afford  matter  of  instruction  and  edifica- 
tion, and  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  mutual  respect  and  charity: 
while  other  customs  which  you  now  rightly  reject  as  innovations, 
distortions,  or  changes  and  destructions  of  the  ancient  religion, 
such  as  the  multiplication  of  altars  and  Masses  instead  of  the 
former  con -celebration  of  one  public  Liturgy,  the  use  of  the 
Blessed  Saciameut  for  visitation  and  meditation,  the  carrying  of 


ON    THE    DIVISION    OF    THE    EAST    AND    WEST.  153 

It  abroad  in  processions,  the  multiplied  varieties  of  religious 
Orders,  and  especially  the  more  intelligent  and  more  systema- 
tized devotion  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  will  change  their  aspect, 
and  will  appear  in  the  light  of  most  desirable  springs  of  spiritual 
moisture  ready  to  irrigate  and  fertilize  the  venerable  but  parched 
and  dried  forms  of  your  Church." 

Suchj  we  may  suppose,  will  be  the  language  of  Roman  divines 
at  no  very  distant  day  to  the  Eastern,  and  especially  to  the 
Russian  Church  :  the  first  preparation  for  which  must  be  a  re- 
examination of  the  question  of  the  Filioque,  and  an  attempt  to 
explain  historically  and  to  justify  theologically  the  gradual 
development  of  the  Latin  doctrine,  till  it  was  defined  in  the 
Council  of  Florence.  If  this  can  be  done  satisfactorily,  (the 
whole  rubbish  of  former  polemics  on  the  subject  being  given  up 
and  swept  away,)  the  application  of  the  same  principle  of  deve- 
lopment afterwards  to  all  other  points  of  difference,  and  even 
to  that  of  the  Supremacy,  will  be  easy,  and  will  follow  of  itself. 
If  this  be  not  done,  or  cannot  be  done  satisfactorily,  the  Churches 
will  remain  in  their  former  attitude,  and  wait  till  the  almighty 
providence  of  God,  by  the  outward  changes  of  the  world  and 
its  empires,  and  of  visible  Christianity,  puts  a  clear  end  to  their 
controversy. 


DISSERTATION  X. 

ON    THE    CONTROVERSY    RESPECTING    THE    PROCESSION    OF    THE 
HOLY    GHOST. 

The  following  may  serve  as  a  short  exposition  of  the  main 
scholastical  argument,  as  it  is  viewed  by  the  two  contrary  sides : 

The  Latins  seem  to  say  that  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  is 
distinguished  into  Persons,  and  the  Persons  are  distinguished 
one  from  another  only  by  the  direct  relative  opposition  of  causing 
and  being  caused,  such  as  is  implied  in  the  names  of  the  Persons 
themselves,  thus : — 

"  He  who  begets  cannot,  so  far,  be  He  who  is  begotten ;  nor 
vice  versa :  but  in  all  other  respects  He  who  is  begotten  is  iden- 
tical with  Him  who  begets.  Also,  He  who  makes  to  proceed 
cannot,  so  far,  be  He  who  is  made  to  proceed ;  nor  vice  versa  : 
but  in  all  other  respects  He  who  is  made  to  proceed  is  identical 
with  Him  who  makes  to  proceed.    And  therefore,  as  it  seems, 

"  He  who  is  made  to  proceed  by  Him  that  begets  must 
necessarily  Himself  also  have  this  property  of  begetting,  (since 
there  is  no  apparent  relative  opposition  between  the  terms  being 
'  made  to  proceed'  and  '  begetting ' : )  and  He  who  is  begotten  by 
Him  who  makes  to  proceed  must  necessarily  Himself  also  have 
this  property  of  making  to  proceed,  (since  there  is  no  apparent 
relative  opposition  between  the  terms  '  begotten '  and  '  making  to 
proceed.'')  Or,  in  other  words,  it  seems  that 

"  The  Father  and  the  Spirit  together  and  equally  (whether 
as  two  Persons  or  rather  as  one  common  principle  and  substance,) 
beget  the  Son  ;  and  the  Father  and  the  Son  together  and 
equally  (whether  as  two  Persons  or  rather  as  one  common  prin- 
ciple and  substance,)  make  to  proceed  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
consequence  is  equally  necessary  in  both  cases. 


ON    THE    PROCESSION    OP    THE    HOLY    GHOST.  155 

"But  thus  the  Spirit  causes  the  Son,  and  is  reciprocally 
caused  by  the  Son,  propositions  which  are  mutually  destructive 
the  one  of  the  other.  Wherefore,  although  both  these  propo- 
sitions seem  to  follow  with  equal  necessity,  according  to  what 
has  been  said  above,  it  is  plain  that  one  [at  least)  of  them  must 
be  false.  And  it  is  admitted  on  all  hands  that  the  Spirit  does 
not  beget  the  Son.  But  by  that  principle  which  was  laid  down 
first  of  all  one  of  these  same  two  propositions  must  be  true, 
otherwise  there  would  be  no  direct  relative  opposition  to  distin- 
guish the  Son  and  the  Spirit  the  one  from  the  other.  There- 
fore it  must  be  the  Son  who  makes  to  proceed  the  Spirit. 
And  thus  we  have  between  all  the  thi'ee  Persons  that  distinction 
of  direct  relative  opposition  which  is  requisite.^^ 

The  Easterns  on  the  other  hand  say  that  "  If  indeed  the  pri- 
mary assumption  of  the  Latins  were  true,  that  there  must  be  a 
direct  relative  opposition,  of  causing  and  being  caused,  to  dis- 
tinguish any  two  of  the  Persons  the  one  from  the  other,  then, 
it  being  admitted,  as  they  say,  on  all  hands  that  the  Spirit 
does  not  cause  the  Son,  it  would  of  course  remain  that  the  Son 
must  cause  the  Spirit.  But  the  first  principle  itself  of  the 
Latins  is  an  arbitrary  and  false  assumption.  The  unity  of  the 
Divine  Essence  is  distinguished  into  Persons,  and  the  Persons 
are  distinguished  one  from  another,  not  only  by  direct  relative 
opposition  of  causing  and  being  caused :  but  the  Son  and  the 
Spirit  are  distinguished  the  one  from  the  other  as  Persons  in 
another  way : 

"  The  Pather  indeed  is,  no  doubt,  distinguished  both  from 
the  Son  and  from  the  Spirit,  and  they  both  in  common  from 
the  Father,  by  direct  relative  opposition  of  causing  and  being 
caused  :  and  the  Easterns  say  in  common  with  the  Latins  that 

''  He  who  begets  cannot,  so  far,  be  He  who  is  begotten ;  nor 
vice  versa  :  and  He  who  is  made  to  proceed  cannot,  so  far,  be  He 
who  makes  to  proceed ;  nor  vice  versa.  But  of  the  mutual  dis- 
tinction between  the  Son  and  the  Spirit  the  Easterns  reason 
after  the  following  manner : 

"He  who  is  begotten  is  not,  so  far.  He  who  is  made  to  pro- 
ceed ;  nor  vice  versa.  Or  again :  He  who  is  caused  or  origi- 
nated so  as  to  be  second  in  order,  immediately,  is  not,  so  far, 
the  same  with  Him  who  is  caused  or  originated  (iw-era,  j^ost,  Sia, 


156  ON    THE    CONTROVERSY    RESPECTING 

per,)  intermediately,  after  the  second,  so  as  to  be  third  in  order ; 
nor  vice  versa."     And  then  they  conclude  that 

"That  Person  which  is  begotten  by  another  Person  who 
makes  to  proceed  cannot,  so  far,  be  Himself  the  Person  doing 
that  same  numerical  act  of  making  to  proceed.  Nor  can  that 
Person  which  is  made  to  proceed  by  another  Person  who  begets 
be,  so  far,  Himself  the  Person  so  begetting.  So  that  it  is 
equally  impossible  that  either  the  Spirit  together  with  the 
Father  should  beget  the  Son,  or  the  Son  together  with  the 
Father  make  to  proceed  the  Spirit. 

"  For  the  truth  is  that  both  to  beget  and  to  make  to  proceed 
are  equally  personal  properties  of  the  First  Person  in  the 
Trinity,  the  sole  unoriginated  cause,  that  is,  of  the  Father. 
And  if  it  be  attempted  to  conclude  otherwise  from  the  unity  of 
the  Divine  essence,  because  the  terms  '  begotten '  and  '  made  to 
proceed'  do  not  seem  of  themselves  by  any  relative  opposition  to 
exclude  the  properties  of  'making  to  proceed'  or  of  'begetting' 
respectively,  the  two  consequences  which  follow  from  this  at- 
tempt, and  which  are  in  truth  both  equally  necessary,  equally 
destroy  one  another,  and  by  so  destroying  one  another  reveal 
the  falsity  of  that  assumption  from  which  they  followed." 

Thus,  to  sum  up,  as  to  the  distinction  of  the  Persons  the 
Easterns  say : 

"  He  who  begets  is  distinguished  from  Him  who  is  begotten, 
and  He  who  makes  to  proceed  from  Him  who  is  made  to  pro- 
ceed, doubhj ;  first,  by  a  common  and  general  relative  opposition 
between  that  which  causes  and  that  which  is  caused ;  and  se- 
condly, by  a  particular  and  special  relation  in  the  manner  of  the 
causation ;  that  is,  in  the  first  case  by  generation,  in  the  second 
by  procession. 

"  And  again :  He  who  is  begotten  is  distinguished  from  Him 
who  is  made  to  proceed  not  by  any  direct  relative  opposition  in 
the  names  or  properties  of  those  Persons  themselves,  but  only  by 
a  difierence  in  the  manner  of  their  causation  from,  and  in  their 
relative  order  (of  priority  or  posteriority,)  to  their  one  common 
Originator.  Being  from  one  and  the  same,  they  are  therefore 
identical  in  their  essence  with  Him  and  with  one  another  :  but 
they  are  distinguished  one  from  the  other  as  Persons  by  the 
manner  of  their  causation  :  so  that,  as  has  been  said  already,  He 


THE    PROCESSION    OF    THE    HOLY    GHOST.  157 

who  is  begotten  cannot  be  He  who  is  made  to  proceed,  nor  He 
that  is  made  to  proceed  be  He  that  is  begotten :  and  He  that 
is  second  in  relative  ordei*,  or  next  after  the  frst,  cannot  be  He 
that  is  third ;  nor  vice  versa." 

As  for  the  Latins,  on  this  point  they  seem  to  the  Easterns  to 
begin  by  assuming  arbitrarily  what  is  false,  and  afterwards  to 
reason  only  from  their  own  assumption.  They  seem  too  (at  least 
if  any  still  with  St.  Anselm  admit  generation  and  procession  to 
differ  in  themselves,)  to  leave  after  all  for  the  Holy  Ghost  that 
very  same  inequality  to  avoid  which  in  respect  of  the  Son  they 
first  attributed  to  the  Son  the  causation  of  the  Spirit.  For 
after  all  the  Spirit  (notwithstanding  the  unity  of  the  Divine 
essence,)  will  be  destitute  of  a  certain  property  of  the  Father 
(that  of  begetting,)  besides  that  of  making  to  proceed  through 
which  alone  He  is  distinguished  by  way  of  direct  relative  oppo- 
sition from  the  Father.  And  He  will  also  be  destitute  of  a 
certain  property  of  the  Son  (that  of  being  begotten,)  besides  that 
of  making  to  proceed  through  which  alone  He  is  distinguished 
by  way  of  direct  relative  opposition  from  the  Son  no  less  than 
from  the  Father. 

Again,  another  difficulty  which  they  think  follows  from  the 
Latin  way  of  reasoning  on  this  subject  is  the  following  :  One 
Deity,  according  to  the  Latins,  introverting  upon  itself  and  in- 
troverted, is  said  to  beget  and  to  be  begotten  :  the  same  Deity 
a  second  time  (not  in  time  but  in  order)  introverting  upon  itself 
and  introverted,  is  said  to  make  to  proceed  and  to  be  made  to 
proceed  ;  the  only  difference  between  begetting  in  the  first  case 
and  making  to  proceed  in  the  second  being  this,  that  begetting 
is  causing  simply,  while  making  to  proceed  is  causing  the 
second  time ;  with  the  addition,  that  is,  of  the  idea  of  posterio- 
rity to  a  similar  anterior  causation.  The  word  person  then  is 
properly  a  relative  term  between  two.  The  first  causation  divides 
or  distinguishes  what  is  otherwise  one  absolute  undistinguish- 
able  unity  into  the  causing  and  the  caused.  Father  and  Son, 
two  Persons  ;  and  exactly  in  the  same  way  that  Deity  which  is 
(except  as  to  causing  and  having  been  caused,)  one  absolute  un- 
distinguishable  unity  (in  the  Father  and  the  Son,)  is  by  a  second 
causation  distinguished  into  the  causing  and  the  caused,  the 
ONE  COMMON  PRINCIPLE  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  two  Persons, 


158  ON    THE    CONTROVERSY    RESPECTING 

as  it  should  seem,  and  Father  and  Son  also  (even  though  this 
language  be  not  used,)  equally  with  the  former  Two,  that  is, 
with  the  Father  and  the  Son  ;  if  indeed  the  ideas  and  defini- 
tions of  '' person  "  and  ''father  "  be  constituted  only  by  relative 
opposition  in  respect  of  causation.  However,  for  the  Easterns 
all  such  impossible  scholastic  disquisitions  are  mere  profaneness. 
But  without  entering  at  present  into  any  further  detail  on 
the  subject  of  this  deep  controversy,  there  shall  be  subjoined 
here  a  brief  collection  of  such  modes  of  expression  concerning 
the  Procession  as  seem  to  be  used  or  implied  by  the  Fathers : 

In  speaking  of  the  First  Person  of  the  Blessed  Trinity  : 

The  Father  i.  breathes,  or  causes,  or  makes  to  proceed  the 
Holy  Ghost  :  and  that  ii.  by  a  personal  property,  in  like  man- 
ner as  it  is  by  a  personal  property  that  He  begets  the  Son. 
III.  He  so  produces  the  Holy  Ghost  in  order  (not  in  time,) 
after  the  Son.  And  by  this  procession  He  communicates  his 
whole  essence,  all  that  He  is,  (except  only  his  personal  attri- 
butes,) to  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  like  manner  as  by  generation 
He  communicates  the  same  whole  essence,  all  that  He  is,  (except 
only  his  personal  properties,)  to  the  Son.  And,  seeing  that  the 
Son  is  second  in  order,  He  communicates  to  the  Holy  Ghost 
that  same  Divine  essence  which  is  now  already  common  to  the 
Son  with  Himself. 

In  speaking  of  the  Second  Person  : 

The  Son  i.  being  begotten  by  the  Person  of  the  Father,  and 
from  His  substance,  receives  second  in  order  all  that  the  Father 
is  (except  only  His  personal  properties),  ii.  He  possesses  as 
his  own,  not  as  communicated  to  Him,  but  as  originally  inherent 
in  Him  (on  account  of  his  con  substantiality  with  the  Father, 
and  on  account  of  his  being  at  the  same  time  second  in  order,) 
the  Holy  Spirit,  who  receives  all  that  the  Father  is  (except 
only  His  personal  properties,)  third  in  order,  [iii.  He  might 
be  said  perhaps,  improperly,  and  indirectly,  to  give  his  own 
essence  to  the  Spirit  on  account  of  his  consubstantiality  with 
the  Father  ;  inasmuch  as  the  Person  of  the  Father,  which  pro- 
perly gives,  gives  to  the  Holy  Spirit  that  essence  which  is 
now  already  common  to  the  Son  with  Himself,  and  numerically 


THE    PROCESSION    OF    THE    HOLY    GHOST.  159 

one  ia  Both.]  So  the  Son,  being  God  of  God,  '  sends  *  not 
only  'from  the  Father'  but  also  'from  Himself  upon  Him- 
self/ after  the  Incarnation,  in  the  Jordan,  '  His  own  co-eternal 
Spirit';  His  Spirit  'not  received  from  without,  but  natu- 
rally inherent  in  Himself,  and  naturally  flowing   forth   from 

Him/ 

In  speaking  of  the  Third  Person  : 

I.  The  Holy  Ghost  proceeds  i.  '  From  God  ;'  that  is,  from 
the  Father  as  a  Person,  or  in  respect  of  his  personality :  ii. 
'  From  the  Father  :'  iii.  '  From  the  Father  only  :'  iv.  '  From 
the  Person  of  the  Father  only  :'  v,  '  Not  from  the  Son  ;'  (that 
is, '  not  from  the  Son,  but  from  the  Father  :')  vi.  '  Not  from 
the  Son  ;'  that  is,  '  not  from  the  Person  of  the  Son  :')  vii.  '  Not 
from  Himself:'  that  is,  'not  from  his  own  Person.' 

II.  The  Holy  Gno^i  proceeds  i.  *  From  the  essence  of  God  ;' 
that  is,  '  of  the  Father  :'  ii.  '  From  the  essence  of  the  Father  :' 
III.  '  From  the  essence  of  the  Father  now  already  common  to 
the  Son  :'  iv.  '  From  the  essence  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  :' 
V.  '  From  the  essence  of  the  Son,  because  from  that  essence  of 
the  Father  which  is  the  Son's.' 

III.  The  Holy  Ghost  receives :  i.  '  He  receives  from  the 
Father  the  essence  of  the  Father,'  that  is,  of  God  :  ii.  '  He 
receives  from  the  Father  that  essence  of  the  Father  which  is 
now  already  also  the  Son's  :'  iii.  '  He  receives  from  the  Father 
the  essence  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  :'  iv.  '  He  receives  from 
the  Father  the  essence  of  the  Son,  because  He  receives  that 
essence  which  is  one  and  the  same  in  the  Son  and  in  the  Father  :' 
V.  '  He  receives  of,  from,  or  out  of{e  vel  de^  the  Father  and  the 
Son  ;'  that  is,  '  He  receives  oi,from,  or  out  of  their  common  Divine 
essence :'  vi.  '  He  receives  of,  from,  or  out  of  the  Son,'  (e  vel  de 
Filio,)  because  He  receives  of,  from,  or  out  of  the  Father. 

IV.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  i.  '  Of  the  Father's  essence ;' 
{Patris  essentia  :)  ii.  '  Of  the  essence  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son  :'  iii.  '  Of  the  essence  of  God  :'  iv.  '  Of  the  Son's  es- 
sence.' Again,  He  is  i.  'From  or  out  of  the  Father  (e  vel  de 
Patre,)  in  respect  of  his  essence :'  ii.  '  From  or  out  of  the  Son 
in  respect  of  his  essence,  because  He  is  from  or  out  of  the 
Father  :'  iii.  '  From  or  out  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  in  re- 
spect of  his  essence,  because  it  is  now  one  and  the  same  essence 
numerically  in  Both.' 


160  ON    THE    CONTROVERSY    RESPECTING 

V.  He  'proceeds  indeed  from  the  Father/  i.  'But  is  proper 
to  the  Son  :'  ii.  'But  is  not  foreign  to  the  Son:'  hi.  'But 
receives  of  the  Son's,  and  of  the  Son  :'  iv.  *  But  is  sent  by  the 
Son.*  Or  again,  i.  He  '  is  from  all  eternity  the  Spirit  of  the 
Son,  no  less  than  of  the  Father  :'  ii.  He  *is  not  communicated 
to  the  Son,  but  is  originally,  naturally,  and  inherently  the 
Son's:'  hi.  He  'receives  from  the  Son  Himself/  that  is,  from 
the  substance  of  the  Son,  and  not,  like  the  creatures,  from  His 
fulness  :  iv.  He  *  is  sent :  and  this  mission  implies  something 
like  authority  in  the  Sender ;'  (that  is,  priority  of  relative  order.) 

Four  abusive  but  orthodox  applications  of  the  word  Procession  : 

VI.  If  the  words  'to  proceed'  and  'procession'  be  used 
equivocally,  (to  speak  with  the  logicians,)  it  may  be  said, 

I.  That  the  Holy  Ghost  'proceeds  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son  /  that  is,  from  the  Father  only  with  respect  to  that  Person 
ov personality  which  is  the  cause ;  but  from  the  Son  also  in  respect 
of  that  common  essence  of  Deity  (common,  that  is,  to  the  Son, 
and  numerically  one  in  the  Father  and  the  Son,)  which  He 
receives  from  the  Person  of  the  Father  as  the  cause. 

II.  Again,  if  the  word  'procession '  be  used  equivocally  in 
another  way,  it  may  be  said  that  He  'proceeds  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son  '  thus  :  namely,  from  the  Father  only  in  respect  of 
His  own  personality  or  origin  as  a  Person,  but  from  the  Son 
also  in  respect  of  His  essence  considered  apart,  (or  improperly.) 

III.  Again,  the  same  being  said  in  either  of  the  two  above 
ways,  or  in  both  at  once,  the  use  of  the  word  'procession'  may 
be  made  still  more  equivocal  by  including  further  under  it  the 
idea  of  temporal  mission ;  as  was  the  case  in  most  of  the  passages 
alleged  and  arguments  adduced  on  the  Latin  side  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  ninth  century. 

IV.  Or,  lastly,  the  Holy  Ghost  may  be  said  to  'proceed  from 
the  Father  and  the  Son'  confusedly,  that  is,  both  in  respect 
of  the  consubstantiality  of  His  Divine  essence  (which  being  in 
Him  third  in  order  is  of  or  from  the  one  common  essence  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son,)  by  an  eternal  procession,  (the  true  and 
proper  sense  of  the  word  'procession'  to  denote  oi-igin  as  a  person 
from  a  personal  cause  being  thus  dropped  altogether,)  and  also, 
in  respect  of  mission,  by  a  procession  in  time. 


THE    PROCESSION    OF    THE    HOLY    GHOST.  161 

But  if  the  procession  from  the  Son  be  asserted  in  any  other 
sense  than  in  one  of  these  four,  there  will  be  in  the  Holy  Trinity 
something  besides  the  three  distinct  Persons  and  the  one  com- 
mon Essence,  namely  the  peculiarly  common  Essence  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son.  Or,  if  one  numerical  act  be  ascribed  to  two 
Persons  as  such,  it  seems  that  either  two  Persons  are  confounded 
together  into  one,  or  they  act  as  two  distinct  principles. 

In  speaking  of  the  Divine  Essence  : 

The  Godhead  or  Divine  nature  considered  in  itself  abstrac- 
tedly, that  is  improperly,  and  irrespectively  of  the  personal 
properties  in  it,  may  be  said  to  be  a  Monad  which  doubles  Itself 
without  ceasing  to  be  numerically  one  undivided  God  ;  and 
which  again,  after  thus  doubling  Itself,  triples  Itself,  still  with- 
out ceasing  to  be  as  before  one  undivided  God.  But  in  truth 
and  fact  it  is  not  an  abstract  Divine  nature  (that  is,  a  mere 
mental  conception  presupposing  the  idea  of  a  plurality  of  persons,) 
which  either  produces  the  Duad  by  generation,  or  the  Triad  by 
procession :  but  if  we  would  speak  t7-ulg  and  correctly,  the 
Father  as  a  Person  is  the  Monad,  which  by  begetting  one 
only  Son  doubles  Itself,  and  by  emitting  one  only  Spirit,  after 
or  through  the  Son,  triples  Itself.     {"  Movag  slg  5t;«5a  x»vj]9sj(r« 

As  the  result  of  all  that  has  been  set  forth  above,  we  may 
give  the  following  amplification  of  the  article  in  the  Creed : 

"We  believe  that  the  Father  begets  the  Son  before  in  order 
(not  in  time) ;  and  after,  {post,  fx-sra,)  the  Son  being  already 
begotten  and  interposed,  {genitojam  et  mediante,)  by  or  through 
the  Son  (5ia,  per,)  produces  the  Holy  Ghost  from  that  same 
His  own  Divine  Essence  which  is  now  already  common  also  to 
the  Son,  and  numerically  one  in  both  the  Father  and  the  Son  : 
And  that  therefore  the  Holy  Ghost  'proceeds'  indeed  from  the 
Person  of  the  Father  only  in  respect  of  His  causation,  but  'is' 
from  the  common  substance  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  or, 
which  is  the  same  thing,  'is'  'from  the  Father  and  the  Son,' 
or,  '  from  that  essence  which  is  the  Son's  also,'  or  '  from  the 
Son,  in  respect  of  His  Essence,  as  the  joint  consequence  of  His 
con  substantiality  and  posteriority  of  order:'  For  in  that  He  're- 
ceives '  from  God  and  the  Father  third  in  order,  He  thereby 

M 


162  ON    THE    PROCESSION    OF    THE    HOLY    GHOST. 

'  receives'  also  from  the  Son,  and  is  the  proper  Spirit  of  the 
Son  no  less  than  of  the  Father;  proper,  that  is,  not  by  'gift 
or  communication'  but  because  of  the  Son^s  being  begotten  inter- 
mediatehj,  second  in  order ;  proper,  not  as  coming  to  Him  from 
without,  but  as  originally  and  naturally  inherent ;  even  as  a 
man  contains  within  himself  and  breathes  forth  his  own  breath. 
But  that  the  Spirit  conversely  or  recipi-ocally  is  produced  *  in 
order  before'  the  Son,  and  the  Son  'after'  or  'through'  the 
Spirit,  so  that  the  Spirit  also  should  be  'intermediate,'  {medi- 
ante  Spiritu,)  or  that  the  eternal  Son  '  receives  of  the  Spirit,' 
or  Ms  the  Son  of  the  Spirit,'  or  'is  the  Spirit's  own,'  in  the 
same  relative  sense  in  which  the  Spirit,  on  account  of  His  pos- 
teriority of  order,  is  the  'Spirit  of  the  Son,'  and  'the  Son's 
own,'  (and  beyond  the  mutual  inherence  or  circumincession  of 
all  the  Three  Persons  in  virtue  of  consubstantiality  apart  from 
order,)  w^e  by  no  means  say  or  allow." 

Such  an  exposition,  supposing  the  Creed  to  be  restored  to  its 
Canonical  form,  might  be  accepted  perhaps  by  the  Easterns  as 
an  interpretation  of  the  clause  Filioque  occurring  in  any  other 
documents  or  writings  of  the  Westerns,  as,  for  instance,  in  Ar- 
ticle V.  of  the  XXXIX.  Articles  of  the  Anglican  Church  : 

"  The  Holy  Ghost  proceeding  from  the  Father,"  (that  is, 
from  the  Person  of  the  Father  only,)  "  and  from  the  Son," 
(that  is,  from  that  substance  of  the  Father  which  is  now  already 
common  to  the  Son,  and  numerically  one  in  both  :)  &c. 

This  would  be  giving  to  the  words  objected  to  the  same  inter- 
pretation now  as  was  given  to  them  in  the  name  of  all  the  Latins 
(some  of  whom  had  already  used  them,)  and  after  inquiry  into 
their  meaning  at  Rome,  by  St.  Maximus  the  Martyr  towards  the 
end  of  the  seventh  century,  when  they  were  first  noticed  and 
objected  to  by  the  Greeks. 


CHAPTER  XL 

CERTAIN    OPINIONS    PREVALENT    IN    THE    GREEK    PART    OF    THE 
EASTERN    ORTHODOX    CHURCH    RESPECTING    BAPTISM. 

Of  Baptism  administered  by  Heretics  or  Schismatics. 

I.  Baptism  administered  by  heretics  or  schismatics  is  from  the 
nature  of  the  thing  itself  no  Baptism,  and  neither  does  confer, 
nor  can  confer  regeneration. 

II.  Nevertheless  the  Church  can,  if  she  pleases,  allow  as 
Baptism  that  which  is  no  Baptism,  and  receive  as  if  they  had 
been  regenerated  those  who  have  not  been  regenerated,  (that  is, 
persons  Baptized  by  heretics,)  by  condescendence  or  economy. 

III.  Canons  xlvi.  xlvii.  Ixviii.  of  the  lxxxv.  called  the 
Canons  of  the  Apostles,  ordering  all  persons  Baptized  invalidly 
by  heretics  [tov;  a^aitzldrcas  /SanrjcrSsvTaj)  on  coming  over  to 
orthodoxy  to  be  Baptized,  did  not  before  ad.  381,  or  before 
A.D.  691,  represent  merely  the  local  tradition  of  certain  Churches 
in  Asia  and  elsewhere,  contrary  to  the  local  tradition  of  the 
Roman  and  other  Western  Churches,  and  never  received  by 
them,  but  were  really  decrees  of  the  united  company  of  the 
Apostles,  and  the  source  of  a  tradition  coextensive  with  the  whole 
Church. 

IV.  St.  Cyprian  the  Martyr  and  the  three  Synods  held  by 
him  at  Carthage  in  the  third  century  (a.d.  255,  258,)  in  de- 
creeing all  persons  Baptized  by  heretics  or  schismatics  to  be 
unbaptized  did  not  base  this  decree  on  logical  inference  from 
the  holy  Scriptures  supported  only  by  the  local  tradition  of 
the  Asiatic  and  some  other  Churches  but  contrary  to  the  local 
tradition  of  Africa,  Rome,  and  the  West,  but   upon  an  immuta- 

M  2 


164  OPINIONS    OF    THE    MODERN    GRFCEKS 

blc  law  laid  down  by  the  Apostles  themselves  in  their  Canons, 
and  upon  the  uniform  tradition  of  the  oecumenical  Church, 
Western  as  well  as  Eastern,  from  the  beginning. 

V.  Canons  viii.  of  the  First  and  vii.  of  the  Second  Ecumeni- 
cal Councils,  decreeing  that  heretics  of  six  different  sects,  namely, 
Arians,  Macedonians,  Sabbatians,  Novatians,  Quartodecimans, 
and  Apollinarists.  are  to  be  received  with  their  Baptism  on 
coming  over  to  orthodoxy,  neither  did  reverse  nor  could  reverse 
the  decree  of  the  Apostles  themselves  that  both  these  and  all 
other  heretics  are  necessarily  unbaptized  and  unregenerated,  and 
need  to  be  Baptized ;  nor  did  they  permanently  interpret  and 
limit  the  application  of  Canons  xlvi.  xlvii.  Ixviii.  of  the  Apostles 
so  that  for  the  future  the  Baptism  of  such  heretics  as  the  above 
(of  such,  that  is,  as  though  thinking  amiss  of  the  Trinity  pre- 
served in  Baptizing  the  outward  invocation  of  the  three  Persons 
and  the  customary  three  immersions,)  should  be  admitted,  but 
that  of  all  other  heretics  should  be  regarded  as  invalid.  But 
rather  Canons  viii.  of  the  First  and  vii.  of  the  Second  (Ecumeni- 
cal Councils  introduced  in  respect  of  the  six  above-mentioned 
heresies,  and  none  other,  an  extraordinary  and  exceptional 
economy  or  condescensioUj  contrary  to  the  strict  truth  and  law  of 
the  Church,  whether  in  Home  or  in  Asia,  and  not  necessarily  to 
be  followed  as  a  precedent :  and  this  for  temporary  reasons  of 
convenience,  danger,  or  necessity. 

VI.  And  whereas  Canon  vii.  of  the  Second  (Ecumenical 
Council  continues  thus,  "  Euvoju,»avo'jj  p,£VTO<  tou;  eij  aiuv  xaroc- 
duTiv  /SaTTTi^OjU-svou;  [S>;Aa5^,  eU  tov  9«vaTov  TOii  XpKTTOV,']  xa.\  Mov- 
TavKTT^g  xa\  ^a/SsAAixvouc,  tov;  vloTTUTopluv  SiSacxovraj,  [Canon 
xix.  of  the  First  (Ecumenical  Council  decrees  the  same  of  the 
]*aulianists  :]  x.t.X.  x«i  raj  a AXaj  Tratraj  alpsaeic,  IttejS:^  ttoAXoj  elcriv 
evTuuSx,  fxakia-TU  ol  aTro  tyj;  FuKutcuv  %wpaj  opixc/mevoi,  vavTUi  cu'j 
''EAA>jvaj  .  .  /3«7rT('^o/iev"  this  latter  part  of  the  Canon  is  not  to 
be  understood  of  all  such  other  heretics  only  as  were  then  actually 
known  in  the  regions  near  Constantinople,  and  differed  from  the 
six  sects  named  before  in  this,  that  they  did  not  like  them  pre- 
serve in  Baptizing  the  outward  invocation  of  the  three  Persons 
and  the  customary  three  immersions:  but  the  words  "raj 
uWag  TTxaag  alpeastg  /SaTrr/^ousy "  are  to  be  taken  in  their  literal 
and  widest  sense,  as  both   attesting  the   preexisting  principle 


RESPECTING    THE    CONDITIONS    OF    VALID    BAPTISM.       105 

and  usage  of  the  whole  Church,  in  the  West  no  less  than  in 
the  East,  and  confirming  the  same  for  the  future  in  respect  of 
all  possible  and  future  heresies,  at  whatever  time  and  in  what- 
ever regions  they  should  arise. 

VII.  The  Canons  of  the  Synod  held  at  Constantinople  in 
Trullo  A.D.  691,  and  commonly  called  the  /7£v9='xtij  or  Sixth 
CEcumenical,  (it  being  regarded  as  a  continuation  of  the  Sixth,) 
are  all  really  of  oecumenical  authority,  and  bind  the  whole 
Church,  the  Roman  and  Western  no  less  than  the  Eastern. 

VIII.  Canon  ii.  of  the  Council  in  Trullo  decreeing  thus  : 
""Edo^s  8s  Ka)  TOVTO  rrj  ayla.  tuvtyj  cryi'oSa)  xaAXicrra  re  x«i  ctttou- 
SaJoVara  wctts  jMBvetv  xu)  a-no  tou  vui/  /S=|3«»'ou£  xa»  a<J'^%Ki^i  irchi  v/o- 
Ywv  9=pa7re/av  xa»  lotTpslocv  ttchQuiv  touj  uno  tmv  -Trpo  yjjmuiv  a'yi'cov  xu) 
ixuxapI'MV  TTUTspcav  Zs^^EVTctg  xui  xvpwQsvTCi?,  uKXci  ju,^v  xci\  TTctpulo- 
QivTuc  riiuv  ov6ii.aTi  rwv  uyloov  ' AirodroKwv  tts'  xavo'vaj,"  recognises 
Canons  xlvi.  xlvii.  Ixviii.  of  that  collection  as  decrees  of  the 
Apostles  themselves,  and  as  of  universal  obligation ;  and,  even  if 
this  had  not  been  so  previously,  would  have  given  them  such  uni- 
versal force  for  the  future,  so  as  to  overturn  any  contrary  local 
custom  or  tradition  of  the  Roman  or  other  Western  Churches. 

IX.  In  like  manner  the  same  Canon  of  the  Council  in 
Trullo  receiving  the  Canons  of  certain  particular  Fathers,  as 
SS.  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  Gregory  of  Neocsesarea,  Peter  of 
Alexandria,  Athanasius  the  Great,  Basil  the  Great,  Gregory 
Nyssene,  Gregory  Theologus,  Amphilochius  of  Iconium,  Timothy 
of  Alexandria,  Gennadius  of  Constantinople,  and  especially  "  tov 
UTTO  KvTrpiuvQu  yavoftjvoy  'Ap^isTTiaxonov  rr^c  "Ai^poiv  %»paj  xai 
MapTVpog  xa]  rr^g  xa9'  xutov  ^''jvo'Sou  sxTeSsvru  xavova,  og  h  Toig 
Ttpoziprjixsvoov  Upoe^puiv  to'ttojj  xu.)  [xovov  xaru  to  •napu^o^sv  ahrol;  sQog 
ExpixTrj(Ts'"  confirmed  the  doctrine  of  the  inherent  and  necessary 
invalidity  of  all  Baptisms  administered  by  heretics,  and  the  practice 
of  repeating  all  such  Baptisms  (except  in  certain  specified  cases 
where  economy  was  to  be  used,)  as  obligatory  upon  the  whole 
Church,  Roman  and  Western  no  less  than  Eastern,  any  contrary 
custom  or  tradition  notwithstanding. 

X.  The  opinion  that  the  Roman  and  Western  custom  of  re- 
ceiving heretics  and  schismatics  in  general  by  Imposition  of 
Hands,  without  rebaptiziug  them  merely  on  account  of  their 
having  been  Baptized  in  heresy  or  schism,  contrary  to  the  judg- 
ment of  St.  Cyprian  and  his  three  African   Synods,  and   to  the 


16G  OPINIONS    OF    THE    MODERN    GREEKS 

tradition  of  the  Asiatic  Churches^  and  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Synod  of  Iconium  presided  over  by  Firmilian  a.d.  258,  was  based 
only  on  an  exceptional  economy  is  justified  by  Ecclesiastical 
history,  and  by  the  confession  of  the  Romans  themselves :  and 
this  opinion  being  expressed  by  St.  Basil  in  the  first  of  his  Canons, 
which  became  oecumenical  by  being  received  by  the  Council  in 
Trullo,  has  ever  since  the  year  a.d.  691  been  the  judgment  of 
the  whole  Church,  Western  as  well  as  Eastern. 

XI.  And  whereas  Canon  xcv.  of  the  Council  in  Trullo,  after 
reciting  and  confirming  Canons  xix.  of  the  First  and  vii.  of  the 
Second  CEcumenical  Councils  in  that  sense  which  has  been  ex- 
plained above  under  heads  V.  and  VI.,  seems  to  enlarge  the 
list  of  those  heresies  the  Baptisms  of  which  were  to  be  allowed 
without  repetition,  this  also  is  to  be  considered  as  done  on  the 
same  principle  of  a  special  exceptional  economy,  at  variance  with 
the  strictness  of  the  oecumenical  law. 

XII.  Canons  li.  and  Ixvi.  of  the  Synod  of  Carthage  held  a.d. 
421,  ordering  children  Baptized  by  the  Donatist  heretics  to  be 
received  by  Imposition  of  Hands,  [^'  ra^sj  ctpyjxia.  Sia  r^f  iTridfcrscuj 
T»)f  xejpoj  avaSc;)^9r)v«i,")  and  Canons  Ixxii.  and  Ixxvii.  of  the  same 
Synod  allowing  the  reception  of  the  Donatist  Clergy  in  Africa 
with  their  existing  Orders,  and  so  implying  also  the  allowance  of 
their  Baptism,  are  to  be  understood  as  allowing  the  reception 
without  Baptism  of  such  children  and  such  Clergy  only  by  a 
special  economy  :  or,  if  the  Synod  of  Carthage  itself  meant 
otherwise,  and  the  decisions  of  St.  Cyprian  and  his  Synods  had 
then  (as  some  say  was  the  case,)  been  abrogated  in  Africa,  still 
it  was  in  this  sense  only  that  the  Council  held  in  Trullo  a.d. 
691  approved  these  Canons,  and  gave  them  oecumenical  authority, 
"  aj;)/|aaAajTi^9U(ra,"  that  is,  "straining"  these  also  as  well  as  some 
others  "  into  conformity  with  the  truth  of  Christ." 

XIII.  The  Seventh  CEcumenical  Council  acknowledged  and 
confirmed  as  oecumenical  the  Canons  of  the  Council  held  in 
Trullo  A.D.  691,  and  so  also  all  that  they  expressly  or  by  impli- 
cation decreed :  wherefore  on  this  ground  also  the  Roman  and 
other  Western  Churches,  having  received  the  Seventh  General 
Council,  were  bound  to  receive  and  to  obey  this  Apostolical  tra- 
dition and  decree,  that  Baptism  conferred  by  heretics  or  schis- 
matics is  essentially  invalid,  and  that  persons  so  Baptized 
"a^aTTT/o-Tctis"  have  need  to  be  Baptized  by  the  Orthodox  Church. 


RESPECTING    THE    CONDITIONS    OF    VALID    BAPTISM.        1()7 

Of  Baptism  administered  by  Deacons  or  lay  people. 

XIV.  As  a  layman  cannot  Offer,  or  Absolve,  or  Ordain,  or 
make  the  Chrism,  so  neither  can  he  Baptize  :  nor  is  it  true  that 
the  Apostles  and  the  Bishops  their  successors,  in  like  manner  as 
they  were  divinely  instructed  to  reserve  to  themselves  alone  the 
power  of  Ordaining  and  of  making  the  Chrism,  but  to  conmmni- 
cate  to  the  Presbyters  the  power  of  Offering  and  Absolving,  so 
also  could  communicate  and  did  communicate  not  only  to  the 
Presbyters  but  to  the  inferior  Clergy  also,  and  even  to  the 
laity,  the  commission  to  Baptize  as  assistants  to  themselves  in 
cases  where  such  assistance  was  needed. 

XV.  Baptism  administered  with  water  which  has  not  been 
consecrated  by  a  Priest,  and  transmuted  into  that  water  which 
flowed  from  the  pierced  side  of  Christ,  is  no  Baptism,  (unless 
it  be  of  water  only,  like  that  of  the  Forerunner,)  nor  does  it  con- 
fer regeneration. 

XV [.  Baptism  with  water  which  has  not  had  oil  poured  upon 
it  by  a  Priest  in  the  form  of  a  cross  is  no  Baptism,  nor  does  it 
confer  regeneration. 

XVII.  Canons  xxvi.  xxvii.  of  the  Council  of  Laodicea  which 
are  of  oecumenical  authority,  and  other  similar  canons  giving  the 
administration  of  Baptism  only  to  Bishops  and  Priests,  are  not 
to  be  understood  only  of  the  ordinary  public  administration  of 
that  Sacrament  according  to  the  full  ritual  of  the  Church,  but 
in  the  strictest  and  most  absolute  sense,  so  as  to  declare  all 
other  Baptisms  administered  by  Deacons  or  others  to  be  no  real 
Baptisms,  nor  to  confer  regeneration. 

XVIII.  Baptism  administered  by  lay  people  being  declared  by 
Canons  xlvii.  Ixviii.  of  the  Apostles,  and  by  Canon  i.  of  St.  Basil 
(made  oecumenical  by  the  Council  in  Trullo,)  as  also  by  St.  Dio- 
uysius  of  Alexandria,  and  by  Canon  xxiv.  of  John  the  Faster,  to 
be  no  Baptism,  this  is  the  immutable  tradition  and  law  of  the 
whole  Church,  against  which  neither  any  sentences  of  particular 
Fathers,  nor  any  contrary  tradition  or  usage  of  the  Roman  or 
Western  Church  can  have  any  force. 

XIX.  Although  the  abovementioned  Canons,  and  Canons 
xxvi.  xxvii.  of  Laodicea,  allowing  that  baptism  only  as  valid 
which  is  administered  by  a  Bishop  or  Priest,  may  have  been  re- 


1G8  OPINIONS    OF    THE    MODERN    GREEKS 

laxcd  even  in  the  East  by  some  local  Canons  allowing  Deacons 
also  in  cases  of  necessity  to  Baptize,  and  though  the  usage  and 
tradition  of  the  West  may  have  allowed  Deacons  to  Baptize  even 
])ublicly  in  the  absence  of  the  Priest,  still  such  relaxation  is  not 
to  be  understood  as  a  permission  to  Deacons  to  administer  law- 
fully what  even  if  administered  by  them  without  permission 
imlawfully  would  still  be  Baptism,  but  rather  as  an  exceptional 
economy  permitting  them  to  administer  and  taking  when  admi- 
nistered as  Baptism  that  which  in  strictness  and  of  itself  is  no 
Baptism. 

XX.  And  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  case  of  Deacons, 
not  even  the  oecumenical  Church  after  the  Apostles  either  could 
extend  or  did  extend  to  lay  people  the  permission  to  Baptize, 
except  by  some  such  economy  :  and  if  the  tradition  and  usage  of 
the  Roman  or  any  other  Western  Churches  was  in  favour  of 
giving  permission  absolutely,  the  Baptisms  so  administered  by 
laymen  were  necessarily  nullities,  and  might  rightly  be  repeated. 

XXI.  Such  passages  as  the  following  from  Tertullian, 
"  Dandi  quidem  Baptismum  hahet  jus  summus  sacerdos,  qui  est 
Episcopus :  dehinc  Preshyteri  et  Diaconi,  non  tamen  sine  Epis- 
copi  auctoritate.  .  .  .  Alioquin  etiam  laicis  jus  est,  {quod  enim 
ex  aquo  accip)itur  ex  cequo  dari  potest,)  .  .  .  quum  urget  cir- 
cumstantia  periclitantis ;"  etc.  {De  Baptismo,  cap.  17.)  And 
the  following  from  the  Canons  of  Nicephorus  the  Confessor, 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  (a.d.  815,)  "  Kara.  oD/ayxr^v  xa«  juova- 
yhg  ISjcoTrjj  ku\  an'ffjoj  ^UTrTii^ei  TrajS/ov,  6[x,oiui§  xa)  Jiaxovoc"  and 
"  To.  ct^i'TTTiaia  vr^ina,  OTuv  hsv  sivai  irapxv  'hpsvi,  -npsitei  va.  tu 
/3a7rT('^y,  oirrAog  Tu^ri,  xav  xai  6  j^joj  Trar^p  auTwv,  yj  uKKog  oiocr- 
IrjTt'jte  uv^pciyTTOi,  (xovov  va  s]vcn  A'picrxjavcj,  xcti  Ssv  dixapTivn'"  do 
not  represent  the  general  tradition  and  custom  of  the  Western 
and  Eastern  Churches  in  the  second  and  ninth  centuries,  but 
are  either  simply  erroneous,  (And  therefore,  perhaps,  those  two 
canons  of  Nicephorus  have  been  omitted  from  the  later  MSS.  of 
the  Holy  Mountain,)  or  else  are  to  be  understood  as  only  per- 
mitting by  economy  the  administration  of  a  Baptism  which  is  hi 
itself  no  Baptism,  and  which,  if  the  person  so  Baptized  lives,  it 
is  proper  to  repeat. 

XXII.  Even  supposing  Baptisms  administered  by  Deacons  or 
lay  pco})le  with  the  permission  of  the  Church  were  valid,  and 


RESPECTING    THE    CONDITIONS    OF    VALID    BAPTISM.       109 

therefore  not  to  be  repeated,  still  Baptism  improperly  adminis- 
tered by  Deacons  or  laymen  without  such  permission  of  the 
Church,  and  even  of  the  Greek  Church,  not  only  subjects  those 
so  improperly  Baptizing  to  punishment,  but  is  in  itself  null  and 
void,  and  neither  can  be  nor  ought  to  be  received  by  the  Church  ; 
but  all  persons  so  Baptized  have  need  to  be  rebaptized. 

XXIII.  Deacons  and  laymen  being  essentially  incompetent  to 
make  the  sacramental  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  it  would  be  a 
sacrilege  for  them  to  imitate  the  celebration  of  the  Liturgy,  and 
to  give  a  Eucharist  which  would  be  no  Eucharist  to  any  dying 
man  when  no  Priest  nor  validly  consecrated  Eucharist  could  be 
had.  But  though  Deacons  and  laymen  are  equally  incompetent 
to  Baptize,  it  is  a  pious  and  allowable  custom  for  them  to  imi- 
tate the  celebration  of  Baptism  and  to  baptize  aj3onrTl(TTwg  per- 
sons in  danger  of  death,  when  no  Priest  can  be  had.  And 
persons  so  Baptized,  if  they  die,  may  be  sung,  and  offered  for,  and 
commemorated,  as  if  they  had  really  been  Baptized  :  but  if  they 
recover  they  are  to  be  Baptized,  not  conditionally  (to  remedy  any 
doubt  which  may  have  arisen,)  but  absolutely,  their  former 
Baptism  being  declared  undoubtingly  to  have  been  no  Sacra- 
ment of  regeneration. 

Of  Bajjtizing  otherwise  than  by  Trine  Immersion. 

XXIV.  Baptism  administered  by  one  immersion  only,  or  by 
affusion,  or  by  sprinkling,  or  in  any  other  way  than  by  trine 
immersion,  although  it  be  certain  that  the  water  touched  the 
person  Baptized  and  that  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity 
were,  outwardly  at  least,  rightly  invoked,  is  not  Baptism ;  nor 
does  it  confer  the  grace  of  regeneration. 

XXV.  Such  Baptisms  as  the  above,  though  not  Baptisms  in 
themselves,  yet  in  cases  of  necessity  allowed  as  such  by  the 
Greeks,  or  by  economy  or  condescendence  of  the  Greek  Church, 
may  be  allowed  as  if  they  were  really  Baptisms,  and  when  so  al- 
lowed may  be  supposed  to  have  conferred  regeneration. 

XXVI.  Though  it  may  be  true  of  all  other  Sacraments  that 
their  existence  depends  not  on  any  will  or  discretion  of  the  Church, 
nor  on  any  recognition  of  necessity,  nor  on  economy  or  conde- 
scendence, but  on  the  presence  of  certain  things  required  by 
Christ's  institution,  yet  in  the  case  of  the  Sacrament  of  Bap- 


170  OPINIONS    OF    THE    MODERN    GREEKS 

tism  this  is  not  so.  Thus  bread  and  wine,  and  a  Priest,  and  the 
explicit  or  virtual  invocation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  being  neces- 
sary by  the  Divine  institution  for  making  the  sacramental  Body 
and  Blood  of  Christ,  if  any  of  these  things  be  absent,  not  even 
the  whole  Church  has  power,  on  any  plea  of  necessity  or  eco- 
nomy, to  make  that  to  be  Christ's  Body  and  Blood,  or  to  re- 
gard that  as  Christ's  Body  and  Blood,  which  is  not  really  so. 
But  in  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism  immersion,  and  trine  immer- 
sion, being  necessary  by  the  Divine  institution  for  conferring 
the  grace  of  regeneration,  the  Church  can  nevertheless,  even  if 
these  things  be  absent,  on  the  ground  of  necessity  ov  economy, 
make  that  to  be  Baptism,  or  regard  that  as  Baptism,  which  is 
not  really  such. 

XXVII.  While  the  definition,  or  as  the  schoolmen  speak  the 
matter  and  form,  of  all  other  Sacraments  is  fixed  and  invariable, 
that  of  Baptism  is  twofold  and  variable,  the  matter  of  it  being 
primarily  and  absolutely  trine  immersion,  (that  is,  when  it  does 
not  please  the  Church,  or  rather  the  Greek  Church,  to  allow  of 
any  exception,)  but  also  exceptionally  (when  it  pleases  the 
Church,  or  the  Greek  Church,  to  allow  a  plea  of  necessity  or 
economy,)  by  one  afi'usion,  or  by  three  aflfusions  or  aspersions. 

XXVIII.  Canons  xlix.  and  1.  of  those  called  the  Canons  of  the 
Apostles  are  really  laws  enacted  by  the  twelve  Apostles  them- 
selves, and  have  ever  bound  the  whole  Church  from  the  begin- 
ning :  besides  which,  even  if  it  were  otherwise,  the  Council  held 
in  Trullo,  a.  d.  691,  having  received  them,  and  being  itself 
received  by  the  V/est,  would  have  given  them  oecumenical  au- 
thority. And  these  Canons  ordering  that  "  if  any  Bishop  or 
Priest  ja^  /SaTrr/croi  sij  Tlccrspu,  kolI  Tm,  xai  "Ayiov  ilvsD/Aa," 
X.  T.  X.,  or  "  ju-i^  Tpi'a  ^uTTTlcrixciTa  ju,(«5  fji.vri<rsKS  iTrjTeXe'crjj,  aWoi 
sv  /SaTTTicTfta  TO  e»5  tov  9av«T0v  tou  Kuplov  SiSo'jXSVOv,  xaSaj^siVflco"" 
imply  that  all  Baptisms  whatsoever  which  should  at  any  time  be 
administered  otherwise  than  by  immersion,  and  trine  immersion, 
although  the  Three  Persons  may  be  rightly  invoked,  and  the 
Baptism  be  not  like  that  of  the  early  heretics  described  as  "  to  elj 
TOV  $uvaTov  TOU   Kvplou  Si3o'jU,sv&v,"  are  necessarily  mere  nullities. 

XXIX.  Canon  vii.  of  the  Second  (Ecumenical  Council  or- 
dering that  the  Baptisms  of  Eunomians,  who  being  aliens  from 
the  Church,  and  thinking  heretically  of  the  Trinity,  rejected 


RESPECTING    THE    CONDITIONS    OF    VALID    BAPTISM.       171 

[both  the  invocation  of  the  Three  Persons  and]  trine  immersion, 
and  Baptized  by  one  immersion  into  the  death  of  Christ  to 
symbohzc  their  opposition  to  orthodoxy,  should  be  regarded  as 
nulhties,  decreed  virtually  that  the  Baptisms  of  those  also  who 
being  within  the  Church,  and  thinking  rightly  of  the  Trinity, 
and  rightly  invoking  the  Three  Persons,  and  not  rejecting  trine 
immersion,  should  at  any  time  Baptize  with  one  immersion  not 
into  the  death  of  Christ  but  into  the  name  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  to  symbolize  .the  unity  of  the  Divine  Essence  against 
heretics  who  from  the  use  of  three  separate  immersions  inferred 
three  separate  essences,  should  equally  be  regarded  as  nullities. 

XXX.  The  same  Canon  allowing  the  Baptism  of  seven  sects 
of  heretics  which,  though  retaining  the  outward  invocation  of 
the  Three  Persons  and  the  customary  three  immersions  corres- 
ponding to  them,  yet  thought  amiss  of  the  Trinity,  by  no 
means  left  it  free  to  the  Church  of  future  ages  to  allow  the 
Baptism  of  certain  of  her  own  Bishops  who,  though  both  using 
aright  the  outward  invocation  of  the  Three  Persons  and  retaining 
inwardly  the  orthodox  faith  corresponding  thereto,  yet  dispensed 
with  the  customary  form  of  trine  immersion,  and  Baptized  either 
by  one  immersion,  or  by  affusion  or  sprinkling. 

XXXI.  Though  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  called  Dialogus,  who 
lived  long  after  the  second  (Ecumenical  Council  and  was  not  ig- 
norant of  its  decrees,  (nor  of  Canons  xlix.  and  1.  of  those  called 
the  Canons  of  the  Apostles,)  supposed  the  two  cases  contrasted 
under  the  last  preceding  number  to  be  quite  distinct,  and  con- 
sequently that  Canon  vii.  of  the  Second  (Ecumenical  Council, 
and  Canon  1.  of  those  ascribed  to  the  Apostles  were  inapplicable 
to  the  case  of  such  Baptisms  by  one  immersion  as  were  prac- 
tised by  some  Catholics  in  Spain  in  his  time  and  sanctioned  by 
the  local  Council  of  Toledo,  Gregory  Dialogus  was  wrong ;  and 
those  Baptisms  were  necessarily  mere  nullities. 

XXXII.  When  Pope  Gregory  Dialogus  writes  that  the  Bap- 
tism of  certain  early  heretics  "  od-x.  h  ria  ovo'/xarj  tjjj  'Ayicts 
Tpiciloi  aW'  ev  xj;  jw-v^fx>;  Tou  Suvoltov  too  Xpiarou  xa»  fxiu  xutu- 
t'jcrei  xotvws  aTrsSoxjjxacrS*]  x«i  a7rfi3Xy;9rj  utto  T^f  SwTJxiij  £x- 
xXrjo-iui,"  (as  it  was  also  by  the  Eastern  both  in  the  Canons  of  the 
(Ecumenical  Councils  and  in  those  earlier  Canons  ascribed  to 
the  Apostles,)  it  is  to  be   collected  that  the  Latin  Church,  by 


173  OPINIONS    OF    THE    MODERN    GREEKS 

some  Synodal  act  alluded  to,  had  absolutely  condemned  as  nul- 
lities all  Baptisms  by  one  immersion,  under  whatever  circum- 
stances and  with  however  orthodox  a  sense  they  should  be  admi- 
nistered, though  Pope  Gregory  expressly  asserts  the  contrary. 

XXXIII.  When  the  same  Pope  Gregory  Dialogus  writes 
"  on  |X£Ta  Toaira.  IC  dixuprriU-oiTa.  Tivcuv  ava/SaTTTi^o'vTWV  Iv  TJ5  ToXstocvyj 
Svvodco  s^ri^lcrSY}  slg  fxlav  K-XTotZiXJiv  ylvB<j^on'  uKKa.  'nuvo-af/.svri:  t^$ 
TOiavTfjs  Trapavoixlui  xoivaog  7rupa.TSTrjpYjTai  ri  TplrTt]  ev  tu>  jSuTTTlcri^ccTi 
xaraSuo-ij,"  a  similar  conclusion  is  to  be  drawn,  namely,  that  the 
Latin  Church  synodically  declared  such  Baptism  as  had  been 
permitted  by  the  Synod  of  Toledo  to  be  a  nullity. 

XXXIV.  Although  St.  Cyprian  (who  rejected  as  null  the 
Baptisms  of  heretics  and  schismatics,)  testifies  that  the  Catholic 
Church  of  the  third  century  regarded  the  Baptism  of  clinics  by 
aspersion  or  aflFusion  as  valid,  writing  thus,  "  Nee  quemquam 
movere  debet  quod  aspergi  vel  perfundi  videntur  agri  cum  gratiam 
Dominicam  consequuntur,'^  and  that  such  persons,  if  they  live, 
are  on  no  account  to  be  rebaptized ;  and  though  other  similar 
testimonies  are  to  be  found  in  other  Fathers,  it  is  yet  certain 
that  all  such  Baptisms  are  essentially  null,  so  that  it  is  lawful 
and  better,  if  the  persons  so  Baptized  live,  to  Baptize  them. 
And  if  such  Baptisms  were  ever  allowed,  this  fact  must  be  ex- 
plained either  thus,  that  the  Church  by  economy  and  con- 
descension allowed  as  Baptism  what  was  no  Baptism,  and  men 
as  regenerate  whom  she  knew  to  be  not  regenerate;  or  thus, 
that  the  non-allowance  or  allowance  of  necessity  by  the  Church, 
or  by  the  Greek  Church,  constitutes  the  matter  of  the  Sacra- 
ment, rather  than  either  truie  immersion  or  affusion  or  aspersion 
in  themselves. 

XXXV.  The  Synod  held  at  Constantinople  a.d.  1484,  after 
the  Council  of  Florence,  (as  also  an  earlier  Synod  after  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Latins  from  Constantinople  in  1260,)  decreed  the 
reception  of  Latin  proselytes  by  Chrism  without  rebaptism  only 
from  an  economy  based  upon  fear  of  their  power,  the  Latin 
Baptisms  being  then  really  nullities. 

XXXVI.  The  above  mentioned  Synods  held  after  the  year 
12G0,  and  in  a.d.  1484,  decreed  the  reception  of  Latins  by 
Chrism  only  because  the  Latin  Church  had  not  then  as  yet 
universally  adopted   the  custom  of  aspersion  or  affusion.     But 


RESPECTING    THE    CONDITIONS    OF    VALID    BAPTISM.       173 

the  Latins  have  changed  their  ritual  in  respect  of  Baptism,  and 
have  become  worse  than  they  were  before,  since  the  year  of  our 
Lord  1484,  or  rather  since  1667  ;  (for  then  the  Greek  Patriarchs 
abohshcd  in  Russia  the  custom  of  i-ebaptizing  Latins,  and  intro- 
duced there  instead  their  own  rule  for  receiving  them  with 
Chrism ;)  or  rather,  that  we  may  correct  ourselves  again,  since 
A.D.  1723,  when  the  custom  of  receiving  Western  proselytes  by 
Chrism  only  was  confirmed  for  Russia  by  the  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople Jeremiah  III.  even  in  the  case  of  Lutherans  and 
Calvinists.  And  the  present  rule  of  the  Greek  Church  to  re- 
baptize  or  Baptize  all  Westerns,  which  was  introduced  by  an 
"Opog  put  forth  in  a.d.  1756,  and  signed  by  three  Patriarchs, 
is  based  upon  and  justified  by  the  change  which  the  Latins  have 
made  in  their  manner  of  Baptizing  since  the  dates  of  the  earlier 
Greek  decrees  now  set  aside. 

XXXVI L  So  long  as  the  Latins  Baptized  generally  by  affu- 
sion, the  Easterns  allowed  economically  their  Baptism,  though 
irregular:  but  since  the  year  1484,  1667,  or  1723  they  have 
changed  their  ritual  and  substituted  sprinkling  for  affusion  : 
and  on  this  account  the  Greeks  changed  their  practice  in  the 
year  1756:  and  on  the  same  account  they  continue  to  Baptize 
Latins  to  the  present  day.  [This  is  only  a  particular  opinion, 
not  generally  held,  and  sufficiently  refuted  by  the  "Opo§  itself 
and  by  the  book  intitled  "  ^ttjAi'tsuo-jc  tov  'P(xvtkt[xov  "  put  forth 
by  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  a.d.  1756.] 

XXXVIII.  The  Latins  in  point  of  fact  allow  and  practise 
Baptism  by  sprinkling, 

XXXIX.  Latin  Baptism  is  invalid  because  the  Priest,  instead 
of  saying  "  The  servant  of  God  A^.  is  Baptized/^  ^c,  says  "  N. 
I  Baptize  thee,'^  &;c. 

XL.  Persons  Baptized  by  one  immersion,  or  by  afi^'usion,  or  by 
sprinkling,  with  a  correct  invocation  of  the  three  Persons  of  the 
Holy  Trinity  are  neither  Baptized  nor  unbaptized,  neither 
regenerate  nor  unregenerate,  but  in  a  middle  state,  half  Baptized 
and  regenerate  and  half  not ;  so  as  to  be  capable  by  the  will  of 
the  Church,  or  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  by  her  allowance  or 
denial  of  necessity  or  economy,  of  being  either  perfected  into 
the  state  of  the  new-born,  or  thrust  back  into  the  state  of  the 
unregenerate.     [This  is  only  an  opinion  of  individuals.] 


174  OPINIONS    OF    THE    MODERN    GREEKS 

XLT.  Though  the  oecumenical  Church  may  have  used  economy 
so  as  from  fear  or  condescension  to  receive  as  if  Baptized  "  Tovg 
oi^xTTTijTcas  jSaTTTJoSavTaj  otto  'Apeicivcuv/'  and  other  hei'etics  who 
preserved  the  outward  invocation  of  the  Trinity  and  the  three 
immersions  without  the  inward  faith  corresponding  thereto,  the 
Greek  or  Eastern  Church  ought  not  to  use,  and  will  not  use,  a 
similar  economy  in  receiving  persons  Baptized  by  the  Latins 
who  with  the  outward  invocation  of  the  three  Persons  preserve 
also  the  inward  faith  corresponding  thereto,  but  presume  with- 
out any  sickness  or  necessity  allowed  by  the  Greeks  to  Baptize 
in  that  compendious  manner  by  trine  affusion  which  was  per- 
mitted by  the  early  Church  only  in  cases  of  sickness  or  urgent 
haste,  as  in  times  of  persecution. 

XLII.  The  present  custom  of  the  Russian  Church  in  receiv- 
ing Western  proselytes  who  are  really  unbaptized  without 
Baptizing  them  is  merely  an  abuse  owing  to  the  overbearing  in- 
fluence of  the  Civil  Power,  or  an  economy  and  condescension 
contrary  to  the  law  and  tradition  of  the  whole  Church,  and  not 
defended  on  principle  even  by  the  Russians  themselves. 

XLIII.  Though  it  be  true  that  in  a  mixed  Synod  of  Greek,  Rus- 
sian, Georgian,  Servian,  and  Wallachian  Bishops  held  at  Moscow 
A.D.  1666,  1667,  the  Greek  Patriarchs,  who  presided,  abrogated 
the  canon  of  an  earlier  local  Russian  Synod  in  favour  of  re- 
baptizing  Latins,  and  enacted  in  its  stead  that  for  the  future 
the  Russian  Church  should  conform  to  the  contrary  practice 
established  by  Greek  Synods  held  at  Constantinople  in  the  thir- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries,  the  decree  of  this  Synod  of 
Moscow  is  of  no  force  against  an  "Opog  put  forth  afterwards  in 
the  year  1756  at  Constantinople  with  the  signatures  of  three 
Patriarchs  (though  without  any  act  of  a  Council,)  or  against  a 
bookintitled  '^  ^TjjXiTfuo-jj'PavTio-jw-o-y  approved  by  the  then  Pa- 
triarch of  Constantinople  and  published  by  him  together  with  the 
above-mentioned  "Opo5  as  in  the  name  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
But  both  the  mixed  Synod  held  at  Moscow  in  1666,  1667,  and 
those  earlier  Greek  Synods  (held  after  1260  and  in  1484,)  which 
it  followed  and  confirmed,  were  abrogated  and  reversed  by  the 
"Opog  in  question  ;  and  now  the  Russian  Church  ought  to  con- 
form  to  the  said  "Opoj  and  to  the  present  practice  of  the  Greeks. 
XLIV.  The  Latins  or  other  Westerns  Baptized  by  affusion  or 


RESPECTING    THE    CONDITIONS    OF    VALID    BAPTISM.       175 

sprinkling,  and  received  annually  by  the  Russian  Church  with 
Chrism  only  by  thousands,  are  all  really  unregenerate  and  uu 
baptized.  In  particular,  the  Empress  of  Russia  herself,  and  all 
the  consorts  of  the  Imperial  family  (whom  the  Greeks  economi- 
cally style  Most  Orthodox  and  Most  Religious,)  and  the  150,000 
or  200,000  proselytes  from  Lutheranism  received  within  the 
last  ten  years  in  the  Baltic  Provinces,  are  all  still  unbaptized 
persons,  w^hom  the  Russian  Church  knowingly  and  deliberately 
and  directly,  (and  the  Greek  Church  no  less  knowingly  and 
deliberately,  though  indirectly,  through  the  Russians,)  by  an 
economy  of  dissimulation  treats  as  Baptized  Christians,  and 
gives  to  them  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ. 

XLV.  While  the  Russians  thus,  under  the  influence  of  the 
civil  Power,  or  by  voluntary  economy  and  condescension,  treat 
publicly  multitudes  of  unbaptized  persons  as  Orthodox  Christians, 
and  give  to  them  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  it  is  allowable 
for  the  Greek  Church,  by  economy  and  condescension,  to  dis- 
semble with  the  Russian  Church,  and  to  receive  herself  also  as 
orthodox  Christians  and  feed  with  the  Body  and  Blood  of 
Christ  all  such  unbaptized  persons  as  have  previously  been 
received  by  the  Russians  :  and  this  not  only  in  cases  of  unknown 
persons,  without  examining  them  particularly  so  as  to  ascertain 
whether  they  have  been  validly  Baptized  or  no,  but  also  in  other 
cases  where  the  persons  are  previously  known,  and  where  it  is 
notorious  that  they  have  never  been  Baptized  by  trine  im- 
mersion. 

XLVI.  It  is  right  and  allowable  for  Greek  Bishops  to  instruct 
a  Western  proselyte  that  he  is  unbaptized  and  unregenerate,  and 
to  require  of  him  to  seek  from  God  not  conditionally  only  but 
absolutely  and  undoubtingly  the  grace  of  regeneration;  and 
yet  to  tell  him  at  the  same  time  that  if  he  comes  to  them  after 
having  first  been  received  by  the  Russians  without  rebaptism, 
they,  the  same  Bishops,  will  then  at  once  receive  him  as  if  he 
were  Baptized  and  regenerate,  though  they  know  him  to  be  un- 
baptized, and  will  give  him  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  and 
all  other  privileges  of  an  Orthodox  Christian. 

XLVII.  Supposing  it  to  be  granted  that  the  Ancient  Church 
varied  from  herself  in  respect  of  Baptism,  at  one  time  admitting, 
at  another  rejecting,  or  in  certain  parts  admitting,  in  certain 


176  OPINIONS    OF    THE    MODERN    GREEKS 

other  parts  rejecting  heretical  Baptism,  or  lay  baptism,  or  com- 
pendious Baptism  (like  that  of  clinics,)  without  trine  immersion, 
and  that  the  divine  grace  of  the  Sacrament  was  given  or  with- 
held according  to  the  varying  will  and  decision  either  of  the 
whole  Church,  or  of  particular  Churches  in  union  with  the  whole, 
there  is  now  an  equal  presumption  that  the  divine  grace  follows 
the  will  and  decision  of  the  separated  Eastern  Church  against 
the  Latin,  (or  rather  of  the  Greek  Church  against  both  the 
Latin  and  the  Russian,)  as  there  was  of  old  that  the  same  grace 
varied  with  the  will  and  sentence  of  the  united  oecumenical. 
Church,  or  of  local  Churches  which  were  in  unity  with  the  rest, 
and  which  did  not  either  separate  themselves  or  pretend  to  be 
alone  the  whole  Body. 

XLVIIL  Perhaps  it  might  -be  possible  to  reconcile  the  prac- 
tice of  the  Greek  and  Russian  Churches,  if  the  Greek,  would 
reason  thus :  "  Neither  we  Greeks  nor  the  Russians  are  alone 
the  whole  Catholic,  or  Orthodox,  or  even  Eastern  Church,  but 
only  local  parts  of  it :  and  no  local  part  Baptizes  in  its  own 
name,  but  in  the  name  of  the  whole  Church  :  nor  can  any  local 
part  rightly  or  truly  impute  to  the  whole  what  is  only  its  own 
local  sense  contrary  to  the  sense  of  other  parts.  The  Greek 
Church  therefore  in  receiving  Western  proselytes  in  the  name  of 
the  whole  Orthodox  Church,  cannot  rightly  represent  the  whole 
Orthodox  Church  as  asserting  positively  of  them  that  they  are 
unbaptized :  for  the  Orthodox  Church,  as  a  whole,  asserts  no 
such  thing  :  as  a  whole,  whatever  she  may  do  hereafter,  she  at 
present  doubts :  for  that  man  or  society  which  at  once  asserts 
and  denies  the  same  thing,  or  at  one  time  or  place  asserts  and  at 
another  time  or  place  denies,  is  said  to  be  uncertain  and  to 
doubt.  And  the  Orthodox  Church  at  present  asserts  of  Western 
proselytes  through  the  local  Greek  Church  that  they  are  un- 
baptized, and  need  Baptism,  but  through  the  local  Russian 
Church  that  they  are  already  regenerated  and  need  only  Chrism. 
The  Greek  Church  therefore,  in  receiving  Western  proselytes  in 
the  name  of  the  whole  Orthodox  Church,  will  for  the  future 
(until  the  question  shall  be  cleared  up  by  some  joint  Synod,) 
refrain  from  ascribing  to  the  whole  Church  what  is  only  her 
own  particular  and  local  opinion,  and  will  rebaptize  such 
proselytes  only  conditionally,  that  is,  either  slightly  varying  the 


RESPECTING    THE    CONDITIONS    OF    VALID    BAPTISM.       177 

Form  in  Baptizing  as  was  directed  for  doubtful  cases  in  the  Office- 
book  edited  by  Peter  Mogila  at  Kieff  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
thus,  "  The  servant  of  God  N.,  if  he  he  not  already  Baptized,  is 
Baptized,'^  &c. :  or  declaring  that  the  usual  Form,  although  un- 
changed, is  used,  and  is  allowed  to  be  taken  and  understood,  in 
a  conditional  sense,  as  in  the  case  of  infants  and  others  of  whom 
it  is  not  known  whether  they  have  been  Baptized  or  no.  For 
such  infants  the  Canons  order  simply  'Uo  be  Baptized;"  and 
yet  certainly  without  any  intention  of  repeating  Baptism,  if  in 
point  of  fact  it  has  already  been  validly  administered. 

Nevertheless  this  is  a  course  which  the  Greek  Church  cannot 
rightly  or  will  not  adopt,  because  she  is  not  merely  a  part,  but  she 
is  herself  the  whole,  and  has  a  right  to  Baptize  in  her  own 
name,  and  to  impute  in  Baptizing  her  own  opinion  to  the  whole 
Church  :  and  the  Russian  Church,  if  she  differs  from  the  Greek, 
is  nothing :  and  the  Greek  is  not  obliged  either  to  confer  with 
the  Russian,  so  as  to  remove  the  difference  and  obtain  one  con- 
sentient doctrine  and  practice  for  the  future,  nor,  until  this  be 
done,  to  consider  her  own  judgment  to  fall  short  of  being 
oecumenical  in  consequence  of  the  opposition  of  the  Russian 
Church. 

The  main  source  of  most  of  the  opinions  enumerated  in  the 
preceding  series  is  the  book  of  Eustratius  Argentes  intitled 
"  ^ttjX/tsuo-jj  tov  'P'XVTJO-jU.ou,"  which  was  printed  by  the  Patri- 
arch Cyril  of  Constantinople,  in  1756,  in  the  name  of  "the 
Church  of  Christ,'^  with  a  Constitution  appended  for  carrying 
out  its  principles  in  practice.  A  translation  of  the  Constitution 
shall  be  given  below  in  Chapter  XII  I.  There  is  also  in  the  modern 
"/7>jS«Xiov"  of  the  monks  Agapius  and  Nicodemus,  as  revised 
and  published  by  order  of  the  Patriarchal  Synod  at  Constanti- 
nople, a  very  long  note  (from  p.  29  to  p.  36,  of  the  Athens  edi- 
tion of  1841,)  on  Canons  xlvi.  and  xlvii.  of  the  Apostles,  the 
arguments  of  which  are  all  taken  from  the  book  of  Eustratius 
Argentes.  And  this  note  is  now  no  doubt  the  immediate  source 
of  the  opinions  prevalent  among  the  Greek  Clergy. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

TRANSLATION  OF  A  MEMORIAL  PRESENTED  TO  THE  PATRIARCH 
OF  CONSTANTINOPLE,  KYR  KYR  ANTHIMUSj  JULY  THE 
24th,  N.  S.    1851. 

"  Having  failed  (as  appears  by  the  accompanying  documents,) 
to  obtain  from  the  Scottish  or  other  British  Bishops  any  dis- 
avowal of  proselytes  who  have  renounced  Orthodoxy  and  joined 
themselves  in  the  name  of  heresy  to  the  Anglican  Communion, 
and  finding  himself  besides,  in  common  with  others,  oppressed 
within  the  Anglican  Communion  by  a  majority  of  heterodox, 
careless,  or  weak  members,  who  have  either  willingly  allowed, 
or  ineflfectually  combated,  the  pretension  of  the  Civil  Govern- 
ment to  decide  all  questions  of  doctrine  and  discipline ;  and, 
more  particularly,  have  submitted  to  a  recent  decision  of  that 
Government  to  the  effect  that  the  doctrine  of  the  regeneration  of 
infants  in  holy  Baptism  is  for  the  Anglican  Church  an  open 
question,  on  which  any  man  may  hold  and  teach  either  the  affir- 
mative or  the  negative  without  becoming  liable  to  rejection  from 
her  Communion  : 

"  And  believing  from  his  heart  the  Catholic  faith  of  the  Creed 
of  Nice  and  Constantinople,  as  defined  by  the  seven  Ecumeni- 
cal Councils,  or  (to  name  a  more  recent  document,)  as  explained 
in  the  'Longer  Catechism  of  the  Orthodox  Catholic  Church' 
printed  in  Greek  at  Odessa  not  many  years  back,  and  translated 
from  the  Russian,  the  writer  is  desirous  of  being  admitted  to 
the  Communion  of  the  Orthodox  and  Catholic  Church. 

"But  seeing  now  some  apparent  difference  between  the  Russian' 
and  the  Greek  churches  as  to  the  manner  in  which  any  prose- 
lyte from  Western  Communities  is  to  be  received,  and  not 
being  willing  to  be  received  only  by  one  local  or  particular  Church 
(whether  Greek  or  Russian,)  in  opposition  to  the  doctrine  and 


A  MEMORIAL  TO  THE  PATKIARCII  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.      179 

practice  of  another,  he  thinks  it  necessary  to  state  precisely  how 
the  case  stands  with  him  in  respect  of  his  present  Baptism,  and 
then  to  ask  whether  he  can  be  received  cither  by  the  Russians 
SO  as  not  to  be  afterwards  in  the  eyes  of  the  Greeks  an  unbap- 
tized  person  unlawfully  admitted  to  Communion  without  Bap- 
tism, or  by  the  Greeks  so  as  not  to  be  afterwards  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Russians  a  person  who  being  Baptized  and  regenerate  al- 
ready, instead  of  thanking  God  for  that  gift,  and  seeking  to 
have  any  other  defects  corrected  or  filled  up,  has  profanely 
and  improperly  consented  at  the  bidding  of  another  particular 
Church,  and  contrary  to  the  sense  of  the  Russian,  and  to  his  own 
conscience,  to  be  rebaptized  as  if  he  had  never  received  the 
Sjicrament  of  Baptism. 

"  The  rule  of  the  AngHcan  Church  is  to  Baptize  children  by 
immersion,  unless  it  be  certified  that  the  child  is  too  weak  to 
bear  it,  in  which  case  affusion  is  allowed.  But  the  common 
practice  is  not  even  to  ask  for  any  such  certificate,  but  to  Bap- 
tize by  affusion,  or  rather  by  sprinkling.  There  is  no  express 
order  in  the  Ritual  that  either  the  immersion  or  the  affusion 
should  be  thrice  repeated,  once  at  each  Name  of  the  Three  Per- 
sons of  the  Trinity  ;  and  if  it  is  ever  so  thrice  repeated,  this  is 
merely  of  the  private  will  of  the  officiating  Minister.  The 
writer  was  himself  Baptized  in  the  usual  way  :  and  could,  if 
there  were  need,  procure  a  certificate  from  the  Register  of  the 
Parish  Church  to  that  effect.  The  Priest  who  Baptized  him  is 
still  living;  and  his  custom  in  Baptizing  is  to  pour  or  dash  a 
handful  of  water  on  the  face  of  the  child,  once  and  not  three 
times,  moving  his  hand,  perhaps,  slightly  at  each  Name  of  the 
Three  Persons  of  the  Trinity. 

"  Now,  to  say  nothing  of  the  omission  of  other  important  cere- 
monies, adjuncts  of  Baptism,  from  the  Anglican  Ritual,  the 
writer  is  aware  that  there  is  a  deep  sense  both  in  the  immersion 
(signified  by  the  very  word  baptism,)  and  in  the  threefold  repe- 
tition of  that  immersion,  once  at  the  Name  of  each  Person  of 
the  Blessed  Trinity.  He  is  aware  that  to  dispense  with  either 
the  one  or  the  other  of  these  things  without  any  real  necessity 
is  contrary  to  the  custom  of  the  whole  Catholic  Church  for 
many  ages ;  so  that  Baptism  so  administered  must  be  irregular 
and  uncanonical,  and  any  individual  so  administering  it  M^orthy 

N  % 


180  A    MEMORIAL    PRESENTED    TO    THE 

of  canonical  punishments.  And  although  St.  Gregory  the  Great, 
also  called  '  Dialogus/  may  have  thought  the  Spaniards  justi- 
fiable in  using  Baptism  with  one  iiamersion  only,  (they  using  it 
in  an  orthodox  sense,  not  to  symbolize  any  heresy,  but  to  oppose 
the  heresy  of  some  who  drew  a  perverse  argument  for  three 
separate  substances  in  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Trinity  from 
the  three  immersions  of  Baptism,)  still  he  cannot  see  that  either 
the  Spaniards  or  Pope  Gregory  could  rightly  without  a  Council 
authorize  any  departure  from  the  universal  custom  and  tradition 
of  the  Church  ia  such  a  matter.  And  he  regrets  that  he  should 
have  been  himself  so  irregularly  Baptized  :  and,  if  it  were  pos- 
sible, he  would  wish  those  defects  in  his  Baptism  to  be  remedied 
and  filled  up  by  a  conditional  rebaptism,  if  any  ground  for 
doubt  as  to  the  essential  validity  of  his  present  Baptism  could 
be  discovered,  so  as  to  justify  such  a  step. 

"  But  he  cannot  himself  seek  for  any  such  conditional  rebap- 
tism in  virtue  of  any  doubt  in  his  own  conscience,  because  he  has 
learned  that  the  whole  Church  teaches  unanimously  that  im- 
mersion and  trine  immersion,  however  important,  are  not  abso- 
lutely essential  to  the  Sacrament  of  Regeneration  in  each 
individual  case.  In  cases  of  necessity  all  admit  clinic  Baptism : 
and  such  Baptism  is  not  (like  a  Baptism  of  mere  wish,  or  of 
sand,)  to  be  repeated  (at  least  not  according  to  the  judgment  of 
the  ancients,)  if  the  person  Baptized  recovers.  All  admit  too 
that  not  only  in  case  of  such  necessity,  but  also  in  cases  of  great 
public  convenience,  or  to  avoid  great  evils,  the  Church  has  used 
and  can  use  condescension,  connivance,  and  economy  in  this 
matter.  But  neither  for  necessity,  nor  for  economy,  nor  under 
any  conceivable  circumstances  can  the  Church  make  the  man 
who  has  not  been  regenerated  to  have  been  regenerated,  or  the 
man  who  has  been  regenerated  to  have  not  been  regenerated ; 
any  more  than  she  can  make  that  which  is  the  Body  of  Christ, 
however  improperly  or  sinfully  consecrated,  to  be  not  His  Body, 
or  that  which  is  not  really  consecrated  to  be  His  Body.  What- 
ever power  the  Church  may  have  in  excusing  or  condemning, 
allowing  or  forbidding,  the  doing  of  that  which  is  as  yet  future 
and  undone,  she  can  have  no  power  whatever  over  questions  of 
fact,  after  the  thing  has  been  done :  '  il/o'voy  yup  avToi>  ^cu  Oeoi 
(rrsp(Vx£Ta»,     ays'vJjTa    ttoieTv     Oj-c'    av    ri     TTSTrpotyfjiiva..         Agam, 


PATRIARCH    OF    CONSTANTINOPLE. 


181 


whatever  power  she  may  have  to  allow  or  disallow,  to  repeat  or 
iiot  to  repeat,  such  Sacraments  as  may  be  repeated,  such  as  are 
in  their  essence  within  her  power,  as  the  giving  the  Holy  Com- 
munion (where  there  is  no  harm  if  a  man  receives  twice  over,)  or 
the  Chrism,  or  Absolution,  or  even  Ordination,  she  has  no  such 
power  in  the  case  of  those  two  Sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the 
consecration  of  the  Eucharist  which  cannot  be  repeated.  Thus 
not  only  the  consent  of  the  whole  ancient  and  of  the  present 
Latin  and  Russian  Churches,  but  also,  so  far  as  the  writer  can 
understand  it  and  make  it  consistent  with  itself,  the  practice 
and  language  even  of  the  present  Greek  Church  forbids  him  to 
doubt  that  however  necessary  immersion,  and  trine  nnmersion, 
may  be  to  the  preservation  of  the  full  sense  and  perfection  or 
type  of  Baptism  upon  the  whole,  and  to  the  Church,  they  are 
not  strictly  of  the  essence  of  the  Sacrament  in  any  particular 
case.  The  same  is  shown  still  more  plainly  and  directly  by  the 
doctrine  and  practice  of  the  whole  Russian  Church,  which  expressly 
tells  persons  in  the  position  of  the  w  riter  that  their  present  Bap- 
tism is  valid,  and  receives  such  proselytes  without  rebaptism ; 
and  indirectly  again  by  the  practice  of  the  Greeks  who,  knowing 
perfectly  well  what  the  Russians  do,  nevertheless  receive  at  once 
all  whom  the  Russians  have  received :  which  they  could  not  do 
without  sacrilege  if  the  Russians  had  really  received  unbaptized 
persons,  or  had  allowed  Baptisms  not  merely  defective  in  such 
important  adjuncts  as  immersion  and  trine  immersion,  but  es- 
sentially invalid ;  as,  for  instance.  Baptisms  administered  with 
rosewater  instead  of  water;  or  administered  by  Unitarians  with 
water,  but  without  the  invocation  of  the  Three  Persons  of  the 
Trinity. 

"  However  in  point  of  fact  the  Greeks  now  in  dealing  with 
particular  cases  follow  a  practice  contrary  to  that  of  the  Russians, 
and  say  to  the  individual  that  he  is  actually  unbaptized,  and 
must  be  Baptized;  though  in  a  case  of  necessity,  or  for  eco- 
nomy, or  if  he  came  in  a  body  with  many  others,  the  Church 
could  use  condescension,  and  consider  him  as  Baptized,  and 
admit  him  without  rebaptism  :  and  that  there  either  is  no  diffe- 
rence between  themselves  and  the  Russians,  or  else,  if  there  is, 
the  Russians  are  wrong  :  but  that  even  if  they  are  wrong  it  is 
impossible,   or  inconvenient,  or  unnecessary,  to  move  and  settle 


182  A    MEMORIAL    PRESENTED    TO    THE 

such  a  question  for  the  sake  of  an  individual  case :  that  the 
applicant  must  judge  for  himself  as  well  as  he  can ;  and  enter 
the  Eastern  Communion  in  whichever  way  he  likes  best,  either 
as  unbaptized  through  the  Greek,  or  as  Baptized  through  the 
Russian  door  :  only,  if  he  desires  to  be  received  to  Communion 
by  the  Greeks  directly,  he  must  present  himself  as  unbaptized ; 
if  he  desires  to  be  received  by  them  as  already  Baptized,  he  must 
come  to  them  in  a  circuitous  and  indirect  way,  after  having 
been  received  first  by  the  Russians. 

"  Since  this  is  the  view  of  the  Greeks,  and  they  are  unable  to 
see  anything  inconsistent  or  unbecoming  in  such  language,  the 
only  question  for  the  individual  is, 

"  First,  whether  he  will  act,  as  invited  to  act,  merely  on  his 
own  private  judgment,  and  the  judgment  of  the  Russian  Church  : 
that  is,  dismiss  as  false  and  self-contradictory  the  Greek  opinion 
and  practice,  and  after  having  been  received  as  Baptized  by  the 
Russians  return  to  the  Greek  Clergy  who  have  refused  him  as 
unbaptized,  and  be  received  by  them,  whether  baptized  or  un- 
baptized, in  virtue  of  his  previous  reception  by  the  Russians : 

"  Or  secondly,  if  this  is  unsatisfactory,  there  may  remain  one 
other  course.  He  may  say  thus  :  '  In  Baptizing  there  are  two 
parties,  the  Bishop  or  Priest  Baptizing,  and  the  person  to  be 
Baptized.  I  should  myself  desire  a  conditional  rebaptism,  if  it 
could  rightly  be  administered ;  though  I  could  not  come  pro- 
fessing to  seek  from  God  that  which  I  believe  myself  to  have 
already  received  :  And  the  rebaptizing  practised  by  the  Greeks  ap- 
pears to  me  now  to  be  virtually  conditional,  though  they  are 
unwilling  to  call  it  such  :  It  is  not  for  me  to  reconcile  their  incon- 
sistencies of  language  or  practice  :  So  long  as  I  can  take  what 
they  do  in  a  good  sense,  and  am  allowed  by  them  to  do  so,  I 
may  leave  them  to  their  own  responsibility  as  to  the  rest.' 

"  The  writer  adopts  this  latter  course,  and  asks.  If  he  puts  him- 
self into  the  hands  of  a  Greek  Bishop  to  be  Baptized,  is  he  free 
to  come  to  that  act  with  such  inward  feelings  as  may  be  ex- 
pressed thus : 

"  '  0  God,  I  thank  Thee,  as  I  have  ever  done,  for  that  grace  of 
Regeneration  which  I  trust  I  have  received  m  my  Baptism  :  But 
since  I  have  learned  that  that  Baptism  was  not  administered  in 
all  respects   rightly,  and   since  some  Bishops  or  some  parts  of 


PATRIARCH  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  183 

the  Church  even  doubt  of  its  essential  validity,  I  seek  now  from 
Thy  mercy  for  them  the  assuring  of  anything  that  was  doubtful, 
and  for  myself  the  filhng  up  of  whatever  was  imperfect '  ? " 

ANSWER  TO  THE  ABOVE,  RETURNED  VERBALLY  BY  THE  PA- 
TRIARCH OF  CONSTANTINOPLE  IN  ONE  OF  THE  LESSER  OR 
INFORMAL  SYNODS  ON  SUNDAY,  OCTOBER  THE  8tH,  1851. 

"There  is  only  one  Baptism.  If  the  Russians  allow  any 
other,  we  know  nothing  of  that,  and  do  not  recognize  it.  Our 
Church  knows  only  one  Baptism,  and  that  without  any  detrac- 
tion, addition,  or  change  whatever,"  ....  [And  then,  turning, 
and  bowing  slightly  to  the  Bishops  right  and  left  of  him  from 
his  corner  of  the  Divan,]  "  This  is  the  answer,  is  it  not  ?"  To 
which  they  expressed  their  assent,  either  verbally,  or  by  a  simi- 
lar inclination  in  return. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

FOUR    DOCUMENTS,    THREE    AGAINST    AND    ONE    FOR   THE     PRAC- 
TICE   OF    REBAPTIZING    WESTERN    CHRISTIANS. 

I. 

Extracts  from  the  "  Travels  of  Macarius,  Patriarch  of  Antioch," 
{being  a  Narrative  of  that  Patriarch's  First  Journey  to  and 
Stay  in  Russia,  from  a.  d.  1654  to  1656,)  ivritten  hy  his 
Archdeacon  Paul  in  Arabic,  and  published  in  English  by  the 
Oriental  Translation  Fund. 

"  The  Patriarch  of  Moscow  (Nicon)  had  held  a  Synod  during 
this  week  (the  fifth  week  in  Lent,  a.  d.  1655,)  in  consequence 
of  what  our  Lord  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch  had  said  to  him,  and 
of  his  admonition  to  them  concerning  various  innovations  and 
defects  in  their  rehgion.  The  first  point  was,  that  they  do  not 
celebrate  upon  an  '/Ivri/xi'vo-jov,  as  we  do,  printed  and  imbedded 
like  ours  with  the  Helics  of  Saints,  but  simply  on  a  piece  of  white 
linen.  The  second,  that  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  Holy  Oblation 
they  do  not  make  (with  the  particles)  the  nine  Orders  (ray/xaTa,) 
but  only  four.  The  third,  that  in  the  Creed,  they  make  a 
wrong  inflexion  at  every  clause.  The  fourth,  that  they  kiss  the 
Icons  only  once  or  twice  in  the  year.  The  fifth,  that  they 
do  not  receive  the  'Avrldcopa.  The  sixth,  that  they  make  the 
sign  of  the  Cross  with  a  wrong  disposition  of  the  fingers.  The 
seventh,  concerning  their  Baptism  of  the  Poles  :  for  of  late  they 
have  been  baptizing  them  with  a  second  Baptism.  The  Synod 
was  held  concerning  other  affairs  also  of  defective  rites  and  cere- 
monies, which  we  have  already  mentioned  and  shall  hereafter 
more  particularly  mention.  The  Patriarch  of  Moscow  therefore 
attended  to  the  words  of  our  Lord.    And  at  this  same  time  he  had 


FOUR  DOCUMENTS  CONCERNING  REBAPTISM.      185 

interpreted  the  Service  of  the   Liturgy  from  the  Greek  to  the 
Russian ;   and  explained  the  Ritual  and   Rubrics  in  so  clear  a 
manner  that  even  children  might  ascertain  the  true  Greek  rite. 
Of  these  Rituals  he  printed  several  thousand  copies,  and  distri- 
buted them  over  the  country,  as  he  did  also  with  the  service-book. 
He  corrected  also  many  of  their  errors  in  points  of  ceremony  by 
Imperial  admonitions  and  edicts,  and  by  authoritative  testimonies 
from  holy  books.     Then  they  concluded  the  business  of  the  Sy- 
nod by  declaring  that  the  rebaptizing  of  the  Poles  was  not  law- 
ful,  according  to  what  our  Lord  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch  had 
told  them,  and  according  to  what  is  prescribed  in  the  Ev)(_oXoyiov 
and  the  Noixoxuvoov.    For  the  Poles  believe  in  the  Trinity,  and 
are  Baptized;   and  are  not   far  removed  from  us,  as  the  rest  of 
the  heretics  and  Lutherans  are ;  like  the  Swedes,  English,  Hun- 
garians, and  others  of  the  Frank  sectaries,  who  do  not  fast,  nor 
bow  down  to  Pictures,  nor  to  the  Cross,  &c.     The  Patriarch  of 
Moscow  therefore,  being  a  lover  of  Greece,  conformed  himself 
obediently,  and  said  to  the  Bishops,  and  the  Archimandrites,  and 
Hegoumens,  and  other  chief  Clergy  who  were  present,  'I  am  a 
Russian,  the  son  of  a  Russian ;  but  my  faith  and  my  religion 
are  Greek.^     Some  also  of  the  Bishops  conformed  themselves 
obediently,  saying,  '  The  gift  of  our  faith  in  Christ  and  all  the 
rites  of  our  religion  and  its  Mysteries  came  to  us  from  the 
country  of  the  East.'     But  others  of  them  demurred  inwardly, 
saying  within  themselves,   '  We  will  not  alter  our  Books,  nor 
our  rites  and  ceremonies,  which  we  received  from  of  old.'    But 
they   had   not   the   boldness  to  speak  openly :  for   the    anger 
of  the  Patriarch  is  not  to  be  withstood.     Witness  what  he  did 
with    the   Bishop    Paul    of  Kolomna,  when   he  banished  him. 
Then  he  confirmed  the  decree  that  the  Baptizing  of  the  Poles  is 
unlawful ;  and  presented  to  our  Lord  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch 
six  Priests  from  the  country  of  the  Poles  Ordained  in  presence 
of  the  Pope's  Cardinal  residing  in  Wilna.     They  said  that  they 
were  Priests  in  the  service  of  the  Russians  [that  is  Uniats,  for- 
merly subjects  of  Poland,]  and  of  our  own  Church.     The  dress 
of   these    Polish    Priests   was   like   ours.     The  only    difference 
between  them   and   us  is  that  they  exercise  their  functions  in 
the  name  of  the  Pope.     Even  the  order  of  their  Liturgy  is  like 
ours.     These  men,  when  one  of  the  Emperor's  Commanders  had 


186  FOUR    DOCUMENTS    CONCERNING    THE    PRACTICE 

taken  one  of  their  towns,  and  was  destroying  the  Pohsh 
Churches,  and  killing  the  Priests,  presented  themselves  before 
him  in  a  suppliant  manner,  and  informed  him  that  they  were 
orthodox.  He  sent  them  therefore  to  the  Patriarch  Nicon,  to 
look  into  their  affairs. 

"  Today  (Saturday)  we  took  them  with  us  to  the  church  of 
the  Queen  [Helena  of  Georgia,  widow  of  David,  grandson  of 
Timouraz  Khan,  where  the  Patriarch  INIacarius  was  to  celebrate 
the  Liturgy  f\  and  as  soon  as  our  Lord  the  Patriarch  arrived,  we 
robed  him,  and  he  made  the  '/^yiao-|*oj,  &c.  Then  we  brought 
to  him  two  of  the  Polish  Priests  abovementioned,  after  we  had 
divested  them  of  their  gowns,  their  girdles,  and  their  calpacks. 
Bowing  to  the  Pati-iarch  with  three  fisTuvoiui,  they  stood  before 
him  bareheaded,  with  an  interpreter  near.  Our  Lord  the  Patri- 
arch then  began  to  expound  to  them  the  mysteries  of  the  true 
faith,  one  by  one,  and  behef  in  the  Seven  Councils ;  and  they 
blessed  what  the  Seven  Councils  have  blessed,  and  anathematized 
what  they  have  anathematized.  Then  they  anathematized  all 
heretics,  and  the  Eighth  Council.  Afterwards  he  read  to  them 
the  Creed  word  for  word.  Then  he  presented  to  them  the  Icons 
and  the  Cross  to  kiss,  and  they  bowed  to  the  ground.  Having 
read  over  them  the  Prayers  appointed  in  the  Ej^o^^oyiov,  and 
the  Prayers  for  the  Chrism,  he  anointed  them  with  it  upon  the 
head  only,  in  the  form  of  a  cross.  Then  we  commanded  them, 
and  they  bowed  to  him  three  times,  both  together ;  and  we  took 
them  to  the  Royal  Doors,  and  they  bowed  before  them  three 
times  and  before  the  Icons  of  Christ  and  Our  Lady.  Thus 
much  for  the  reception.  Then  we  took  hold  of  them  by  their 
arms,  according  to  custom,  saying  '  KeXeua-ov  x.  t.  K.  Jsa-noTa 
clyi'.'  Then  the  Patriarch  blessed  them,  and  vested  them  with 
the  Tunicle  (^Ti;5^ap»ov)  and  Orarion  only  as  Deacons,  without 
reciting  any  Prayer,  saying  to  each  of  them  '  Thy  soul  rejoice 
in  the  Lord  ;  for  He  hath  vested  thee  in  the  (jarment  of  purity  .' 
a^c.  Then  he  blessed  them  a  second  time,  and  they  stood 
with  us.  At  the  time  I  said  the  Gospel,  I  went  and  presented 
it  to  them  to  kiss,  as  is  customary.  So  also  we  mentioned 
their  names  after  the  mention  of  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
press, and  their  son,  and  daughters,  and  sisters.  After  the 
carrying  round  of  the   Gifts  [iu  the  Great    Introit]  our   Lord 


OF   REBAPTIZING    WESTERN    CHRISTIANS.  187 

went  out  from  the  sanctuary  with  the  Cross,  and  they  came 
near  to  him,  and  he  blessed  them  with  it,  as  is  usual.  Then  we 
brought  forward  those  two  Poles ;  and  they  bowed  before  the 
Holy  Table  three  times,  and  the  Patriarch  blessed  them,  and 
put  on  them  the  'Enirpu^^Xiov  and  the  <Pi\Mviov  [as  to  Priests,] 
while  he  repeated  the  verses.  Then  he  delivered  to  them  the 
Service-book  of  the  Liturgy  ;  and  the  other  Priests  kissed  them, 
as  usual ;  and  they  took  their  station  [and  Celebrated]  with 
them :"  &c.     Part  v.  §.  x.  pp.  85-87. 

"On  the  Wednesday  before  the  Ascension  (a.  d.  1655,)  our 
Lord  the  Patriarch  (of  Antioch)  celebrated  the  Liturgy  in  the 
church  of  the  convent,  and  ordained  Priests  and  Deacons.  He 
Converted  [that  is,  received  as  proselytes]  four  Priests  from 
the  country  of  the  Poles  j  and  having  Anointed  them,  delivered 
them  in  charge  to  one  of  the  Priests  of  the  convent,  to  be 
taught  the  order  of  Sacrifice  [that  is,  of  the  Offertory  or  Prepa- 
ration at  the  Prothesis,]  and  the  Liturgy  for  a  certain  number 
of  days."  [So  then  these  were  Latin  Poles,  not  Uniats.]  lb.. 
Part  vi.  §.  V.  p.  129. 

"  On  Tuesday  in  Easter  week  "  [a.  d.  1656 ;  the  Patriarch 
Macarius  and  the  writer  his  Archdeacon  having  left  Moscow  in 
order  to  return  to  their  own  country  on  the  evening  of  the  Fifth 
Sunday  in  Lent,  and  being  then  at  Volchova,  at  the  moment 
they  were  preparing  to  prosecute  their  journey  to  Pontivlia,  a 
Grand  Sotnik  overtook  them,  and  requested  the  Patriarch  Ma- 
carius in  the  Emperor's  name  to  return  to  him]  "  to  assist  at  a 
new  and  secret  Synod,  and  for  other  secret  and  necessary  busi- 
ness of  Church  and  State  "  &c.  lb.  p.  287.  So  they  returned, 
and  on  Thursday  in  St.  Thomas's  week  reentered  Moscow, 
p.  291. 

'•'  On  Sunday  before  the  Ascension  (a.  d.  1656,)  the  Patriarch 
of  Moscow  invited  our  Lord ;  and  having  assisted  at  Liturgy  in 
the  cathedral,  we  went  up  to  his  palace,  where  he  this  day  held 
a  Synod.  Summonses  had  been  sent  to  all  the  Bishops,  &c. 
throughout  the  country ;  and  the  Metropolitan  of  Kazan  was 
come  to  attend  the  Council.  The  object  of  the  meeting  was  to 
discuss  the  Baptism  of  the  Poles ;  because,  as  wc  have  before 
mentioned,  the  Muscovites  were  in  the  habit  of  Baptizing  them ; 
whereas    in    the  books   of  Ecclesiastical  law  this  is  forbidden, 


188  FOUR    DOCUMENTS    CONCERNING    THE    PRACTICE 

with  the  exception  of  four  sects  which  have  made  their  appear- 
ance (more  recently)  in  our  time,  and  which  are  the  Enghsh, 
the  Lutheran,  the  Calviuist,  and  the  Taphlagonians  who  are 
followers  of  Paul  of  Samosata  [Socinians,]  and  dwell  in  thirty  - 
small  towns  or  villages  in  the  district  of  Tornova.  Our  Lord 
the  Patriarch  therefore  demanded  of  them  that  they  should 
conform  to  what  was  written  in  their  own  laws.  We  had  found 
in  a  book  an  ancient  writing  from  the  Holy  Mountain  in  which 
this  matter  was  expounded.  This  section  of  the  book  our  Lord 
the  Patriarch  wrote  out,  and  signed  with  his  own  name  :  and 
after  a  long  and  an  angry  discussion  with  the  heads  of  the  Mus- 
covite Clergy  at  this  Synod,  he  compelled  them  by  the  testi- 
mony of  their  own  laooks  of  Law  [Nomocanons,]  reluctantly  to 
submit  to  the  truth.  Then  he  delivered  this  document  or  book 
to  the  Patriarch  of  Moscow,  after  he  had  put  his  name  to  it ; 
and  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Emperor.  Afterwards  it 
was  translated  into  the  Russian  language,  printed,  and  distri- 
buted :  and  an  Lnperial  decree  in  conformity  with  it  went 
forth  to  prohibit  the  Baptism  of  the  Poles  and  other  Franks  of 
the  same  religion  ;  for  they  approach  the  nearest  of  any  of  the 
sects  to  ours.  Thus  this  affair  was  settled,  and  the  business  of 
the  Synod  concluded." 

"  Now  at  length  we  discovered  the  motive  of  our  detention, 
which  was  for  three  purposes.  The  first  was  to  discuss  the 
affair  of  the  Baptism  of  the  Poles  ;  the  second,  to  give  testimony 
concerning  the  Metropolitan  of  Moldavia;  and  the  third,  to 
condemn  a  new  heresy  of  a  second  Arius,  which  had  made  its 
appearance  among  the  Muscovites,  as  we  shall  relate  hereafter.-" 
lb.,  Part  vii.  §.  viii.  p.  296. 

n. 

Extract  from  the  MS.  Acts  of  the  Synod  held  at  Moscow,  a.  d. 
1666— 16G7,/or  the  Deposition  of  the  Patriarch  Nicon. 

In  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
Amen.  In  the  present  year  a.  m.  7105,  and  a.  d.  1667,  March 
15,  at  the  desire  of  the  Tsar  Alexis  Michaelovich,  &c.,  the 
Most  Holy  Patriarchs  Paisms  of  Alexandria,  Macarius  of  An- 
tioch,  Joasaph  of  Moscow  and    All  Russia,  assembled  together 


OF    REBAPTIZING    WESTERN    CHRISTIANS.  189 

with  the  Most  Reverend  Metropolitans,  Archbishops,  and 
Bishops,  and  all  the  sacred  Synod  ;  when  the  Tsar  addressed 
them  concerning  a  former  Synod  held  in  the  year  129,  [1629?] 
under  the  Most  Holy  Patriarch  Philaret  Niketich  of  Moscow 
and  All  Russia  respecting  the  Baptizing  of  persons  coming  over 
from  the  Roman  faith  to  the  orthodox  faith  of  the  holy  Eas- 
tern Church  ;  [and  asked]  whether  it  was  then  rightly  decreed 
to  Baptize  them  ? 

Hereupon  the  Patriarchs,  &c.,  gave  order  to  copy  out  from 
the  Synodal  Exposition  made  under  the  Patriarch  Philaret  Ni- 
ketich such  passages  as  were  quoted  in  it  from  the  Canons  of 
the  holy  Apostles  and  of  the  holy  Fathers,  and  from  other  divine 
writings,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  they  who 
wrote  for  that  former  Synod  transcribed  and  adduced  accui'ately 
what  they  adduced  from  the  Canons  and  other  divine  writings 
concerning  the  aforesaid  Latin  Baptism,  or  there  was  in  their 
transcriptions  and  adductions  any  inaccuracy. 

[So  there  was]  transcribed  from  the  Canons  and  from  that 
former  Synodal  Exposition  [as  follows :] 

In  the  Synodal  Exposition,  fol.  219,  there  are  printed  these 
words  :  "  Jonah,  Metropolitan  of  Kroutitz  said.  It  is  written  in 
the  Sixth  Council  that  the  Latins  ought  not  to  be  Baptized, 
but  only  anointed  with  Chrism  :"  And  the  answer  made  to  the 
said  Jonah,  thus  :  "  In  canon  xcv.,  the  canon  alluded  to,  this  is 
not  written  ;  but  what  is  written  is,  that  '  The  Paulicians,  the 
Eunomians,  Montanists,  Sabellians,  Manichees,  Valentinians, 
Marcionites,  and  others  of  like  heresies,  on  their  coming  to 
the  orthodox  faith  we  receive  as  heathens :'  and  a  heathen 
must  of  course  be  Baptized/^  There  is  printed  also  part  of  a 
gloss  upon  the  same  Canon  respecting  heretics  not  named  by 
it,  adding  from  other  Canons  a  notice  which  of  them  are  to 
be  Baptized. 

But  in  this  Canon  xcv.  of  the  Sixth  Ecumenical  Council  we 
read  :  "  Them  that  are  converted  from  heretics  we  receive  thus  : 
Arians,  ^Macedonians,  &c.,  Nestorians,  ['Apia-Tspov^,]  Quarto- 
decimans,  and  Apollinarists,  and  Eutychians,  and  Sabellians, 
and  those  who  come  from  similar  heresies,  on  their  anathema- 
tizing all  heresies,  and  their  own  among  the  rest,  we  anoint 
with  holy  Chi-ism  on   the  breast,  the  eyes,  the  nostrils,  the  lips. 


190    FOUR  DOCUMENTS  CONCERNING  THE  PRACTICE 

and  the  ears,  signing  them,  and  saying  '  The  Seal  of  the  Gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.'  "  And  with  this  Canon  the  answer  given  to  the 
Metropohtan  of  Kroutitz  in  the  Synodal  Exposition  does  not  agree. 
In  the  same  Exposition,  fol.  220,  there  are  printed  as  adduced 
in  proof  Canons  xlvi.  and  1.  of  the  Holy  Apostles.  And  of  these 
in  Canon  xlvi.  it  is  written  that  "  a  Bishop  receiving  the  Baptism 
or  Sacrifice  of  heretics  is  to  be  deposed :"  and  in  Canon  1.,  that 
"  if  any  Bishop  shall  not  perform  three  immersions  of  one  initia- 
tion, but  one  immersion,  which  is  given  into  the  death  of  the 
Lord,  he  is  to  be  deposed :"  &c. 

But  these  Apostolical  Canons  must  be  rightly  understood. 
For  in  speaking  thus  of  the  Baptism  and  Sacrifice  of  heretics 
they  plainly  intend  those  heretics  who  are  totally  aliens  from 
the  divine  faith,  and  whom  the  Canons  following  order  to  be 
Baptized,  but  not  such  as  Baptize  in  the  Name  of  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  oppose  themselves  in  conse- 
quence of  some  other  schisms  or  heresies. 

These  Apostolic  Canons  too  are  cited  unfairly  against  the 
Latin  Baptism.  For  they  say,  "If  any  man  Baptize  not  by 
three  immersions,  but  by  one  only  which  is  given  into  the  death 
of  the  Lord,  let  him  be  deposed."  But  the  Latins  Baptize 
neither  by  one  immersion,  nor  into  the  death  of  the  Lord  ;  but 
they  Baptize  by  pouring  water  thrice  in  the  Name  of  the 
Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  the  Form  of  the 
Roman  Baptism  exhibited  to  this  sacred  Synod  proves.  It  would 
have  been  more  to  the  point  for  the  writer  of  the  Exposition  to 
have  raised  the  question  about  affusion,  and  to  have  questioned 
whether  affusion  is  to  be  received  in  lieu  of  immersion  ;  whereas 
now  he  has  adduced  no  testimonies  invalidating  affusion. 

In  the  same  Exposition,  fol.  220,  Canon  xix.  of  the  First 
CEcumenical  Council  relating  to  the  Paulicians  is  adduced  in 
argument.  But  neither  can  this  Canon  be  rightly  applied  to 
the  case  of  Latin  Baptism,  seeing  that  the  Paulicians  denied  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  and  asserted  Him  to  be  a  mere  man. 

At  the  same  fol.  220,  overleaf,  are  printed  these  words: 
"  The  Melchisedekians,  and  the  Jews,  and  the  Armenians,  fast 
on  the  Sabbath."  In  this  too  the  writer  has  made  his  collections 
inaccurately.  For  the  Jews  the  Sabbath  is  a  festival,  not  a 
fast,  as  is  plain  from  their  laws.    And  the  Armenians  eat  cheese 


or    REBAPTTZIXG    WESTERN    CHRISTIANS.  191 

and  eggs  on  all  Sabbaths,  as  may  be  seen  from  Canon  Ivi.  of  the 
Sixth  Council  quoted  at  fol.  221  by  the  wiiter  himself,  though 
wrongly  called  by  him  Canon  Ivi.  of  the  Apostles.  He  has  also 
at  fol.  221  these  words :  "  The  Jews  keep  festival  on  the  Sab- 
bath :"  notwithstanding  his  having  written  above  at  fol.  220 
"The  Jews  fast  on  the  Sabbath."  And  yet  before,  on  the  same 
fol.  221,  he  had  written,  "  The  Romans  equally  with  the  Jews 
and  Melchisedekians  and  Armenians  fast  on  the  Sabbath."  And 
this  is  another  inaccuracy  of  the  writer. 

On  the  same  folio,  overleaf,  he  has  ascribed  to  the  Romans  the 
heresy  of  Montanus.  And  if  indeed  there  were  found  in  them 
the  heresy  of  Montanus,  or  any  other  like  it,  [making  them  to 
be]  like  those  heretics  whom  the  Canons  order  us  to  Baptize, 
it  would  follow  that  we  ought  to  Baptize  the  Romans  likewise. 
But  upon  examination  of  the  Order  of  the  Latin  Baptism  by  this 
Synod  it  appears  that  there  is  among  the  Romans  no  such  thing 
as  the  heresy  of  Montanus ;  seeing  that  they  Baptize  in  the  Name 
of  the  Father,  and  the  Sox,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  only  they 
pour  water  thrice  instead  of  immerging.  But  against  affusion 
the  writer  exhibited  to  the  Synod  held  under  Philaret  Niketich 
no  proofs  whatever. 

At  fol.  223,  224,  225,  226,  227,  228,  of  the  same  Synodal 
Exposition  the  writer  parallels  with  the  Latins  certain  heretics 
whom  we  are  oi'dered  to  Baptize,  namely  the  Montanists  called 
Phrygians,  and  the  Sabellians,  who  were  heretical  concerning 
the  Trinity.  But  these  may  not  so  be  paralleled  with  the  Ro- 
mans ;  seeing  that  according  to  the  Roman  Order  Baptism  is  ad- 
ministered in  the  Name  of  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

At  fol.  228,  overleaf,  it  is  thus  written  :  "  The  Arians  Baptize 
with  one  immersion  :  They  say  not  '  In  the  name  of  the  Father, 
a7id  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,'  but '  In  the  name  of 
Him  that  is  to  come,'  (like  John  the  Forerunner,)  that  is,  Christ 
Jesus."  This  too  the  writer  has  written  inaccurately,  without 
examining  the  Canons.  If  such  had  been  indeed  the  Baptism 
of  the  Arians  at  the  time  [when  the  Canons  were  made,]  and 
not  in  the  Name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  divine  Canons  would  not  have  ordered  that  they  should 
be  received,  and  that  they  should  not  be   rebaptized,  but  only 


192  FOUR    DOCUMENTS    CONCERNING    THE    PRACTICE 

anointed  with  Chrism,  and  made  to  anathematize  their  heresy ; 
as  is  clear  from  Canon  xcvi.  of  the  Sixth  Council,  quoted  above. 
At  fol.  230,  overleaf.  Canon  xix.of  the  First  (Ecumenical  Coun- 
cil, relating  to  the  Paulicians,  is  applied  to  the  Latins.  The 
writer  is  again  inaccurate  in  making  this  application,  as  has 
been  already  shown  above. 

The  principal  heresy  of  the  Latins  is  their  departure  from  the 
Eastern  Church  concerning  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
holding  that  He  proceeds  from  the  Son  also,  like  as  from  the 
Father.  And  this  Latin  heresy  respecting  the  procession  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  exceeded  in  gravity  both  by  the  Arian 
heresy  and  by  the  Macedonian.  For  the  Arians  do  not  confess 
the  Son  of  God  to  be  of  one  substance  with  the  Father  and 
the  Holy  Ghost,  but  say  that  He  was  made  and  created  :  and 
the  Macedonians  separate  the  Holy  Ghost  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  and  make  Him  a  servant.  Notwithstanding  this. 
Canons  vii.  of  the  Second,  and  xcv.  of  the  Sixth  Oecumenical 
Councils  do  not  order  us  to  Baptize  them,  but  only  to  anoint 
them  with  Chrism  according  to  the  usual  form.  How  much 
more  then  are  the  Latins  (who  are  guilty  of  a  less  error,)  not  to 
be  Baptized  ?  Canon  vii.  of  the  Second  Council  says  thus  :  "The 
Quartodecimans,  or  Tetraditse,  and  Arians,  and  Macedonians, 
and  Novatians,  and  Sabbatians,  and  Apollinarists,  we  receive  upon 
their  giving  libels,  sealing  them  only  on  all  the  senses."  And 
Canon  xcv.  of  the  Sixth  Council  has  been  cited  and  written  out 
above.  And  in  consideration  of  these  Canons  neither  ought  the 
Latins  to  be  Baptized  ;  since  they  Baptize  in  the  Name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  not 
like  the  Montanists,  and  Pcpouzians,  and  Phrygians,  and  all  the 
rest  who  resemble  them  and  are  altogether  heretics. 

Canon  i.  of  Basil  the  Great  teaches  that  he  is  a  heretic  who 
is  an  ahen  in  faith:  "AlpenKo;  Iotjv  6  ttuvteXu);  ciiTsppriyi/,iv05  xa» 
xdT  auTYiV  TYiV  Tvicrxiv  anrjXKoTpictiiJisvog'  6  11  5j«  i^rjTYjixa.  T«  ayva:<r- 
TOV  [I«(rj/x.ov,]  (7X^(7 ixarixoi'  nctpujuvayc/oycA  8=  elcriv  al  (Tuvafeij 
a\  "Trapa.  toutxv  rj  aAXwv  uvvt:ot^x.txv  yivj[xsvcn'  otnvz^  uTTBO-p^sQ- 
Yi^av  u'JTo)  ol  jSiOi  uTTO  T^j  xa9oXixr;c  'EjcxX>)Tjac,  xa.)  ccKXr,v  cuv- 
e(rTrj(Tuv  sU  rrjv  oiroluv  avvayovTai.  " Elo^s  toIvvv  toTj  I^  agx^? 
TO  ixh  Tcov  a'iPSTixuiV  /3a7rT»a"j!/,a  TrxvrsXiuc  a.S-Tr,<j-ctr  to  8=  TUiV  oyj><y- 
[xxTiKuiv   xui   TO   Twv  Iv  TaTj  ■jritpatTvvoiyoiyoui  Trapuli^aa-^xt." 


OF    REBAPTIZING    AVESTERN    CHRISTIANS.  193 

The  Canon  of  the  Presbyter  Timothy  at  fol.  C34  of  the 
"  Kormchay  "  [that  is,  of  the  Russian  Nomocanon,]  directs  that 
Arians  are  not  to  be  Baptized,  but  only  anointed  with  Chrism. 

In  the  book  of  our  venerable  father  Joseph  of  Volotsk  ad- 
dressed to  the  heretics  of  Novgorod,  ch.  15,  it  is  written  thus: 
"  As  for  those  who  come  over  from  the  heretics  and  repent,  but 
believe,  and  have  been  Baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  tlie 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  is  not  commanded  to  rebaptize 
them,  but  to  admit  them  to  the  Mysteries  at  once,  as  soon  as 
they  have  renounced  their  heresy." 

The  following  is  a  Canonical  Answer  of  Timothy,  Archbishop 
of  Alexandria,  to  a  Question  addressed  to  him  :  [omitted  from 
the  latest  editions  of  the  Greek  /7)]5aX»ov] 

{Question.)  "  Why  do  we  not  Baptize  heretics  who  are  con- 
verted to  the  Catholic  Church  ? "  [Answer.)  "  If  we  did  Bap- 
tize them  a  man  would  not  be  so  ready  to  return  from  heresy, 
from  shame  to  be  rebaptized.  However,  we  must  know  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  comes  also  by  the  laying  on  of  the  hand  of  the 
Presbyters  and  by  prayer,  as  is  attested  by  the  Acts  of  the  Holy 
Apostles,  chap,  xviii.  '  Then  laid  they  their  hands  upon  them,  and 
they  received  the  Holy  Ghost. ^  Over  and  above  these  consider- 
ations we  should  consider  the  case  of  those  who  have  voluntarily 
apostatized  from  Christ,  and  have  sacrificed  to  idols,  and  have 
not  only  perished  themselves  but  compelled  others  also  to  perish 
with  them,  of  whom  Canon  ix.  of  the  Synod  of  Ancyra  (fol.  44, 
in  the  Kormchay,)  decrees  thus  :  '  Whoever  has  not  only  himself 
sacrificed,  but  has  also  compelled  others,  let  him  do  penance  for 
ten  years'  {The  Gloss  upoji  the  same:)  'Whoever  have  not 
only  sacrificed,'  &c.'^  [reciting  the  Canon  at  length  as  it  stands 
in  the  Greek  JTZiiSaAiov,  p.  217,  with  very  little  variation.] 

But  if  any  one  begins  to  be  displeased  through  respect  for 
that  Synodal  Exposition  made  under  Philaret  Niketich,  Patriarch 
of  Moscow  and  all  Russia,  and  not  enduring  that  it  should  be 
set  aside,  let  not  such  a  one  be  displeased  hereat ;  nor  let  him 
be  troubled  with  any  doubt ;  but  let  him  know  that  in  old  times 
also  one  synod  corrected  another,  and  did  not  think  it  inadmis- 
sible to  meddle  with  the  earlier,  but  taking  counsel  for  the 
greater  profit  of  the  Church  corrected  them  afterwards ;  as  may 
be  seen  in  the  following  instances  :  The  Synod  of  Neoc£esarea 

o 


194  FOUR    DOCUMENTS    CONCERNING    TEIE    PRACTICE 

in  its  fifteentli  Canon  orders  that  in  each  Cathedral  there  should 
be  seven  Deacons,  though  the  city  may  be  a  great  one.  But 
the  holy  Fathers  of  the  Sixth  CEcumenical  Council  decided  con- 
cerning this  Synod  of  Neoca^sarea  that  it  had  not  I'ightly 
understood  the  words  found  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  respect- 
ing seven  Deacons :  for  the  Apostles  then  were  not  taking 
thought  for  men  to  serve  in  the  divine  Mysteries,  but  for  men 
to  serve  tables,  &c.  The  same  may  be  said  of  many  other 
canons  also,  which  subsequently  the  (Ecumenical  Synods  set 
aside.  As  may  be  seen  in  the  case  of  the  Synod  held  under 
St.  Cyprian  which  decreed  that  all  heretics  and  schismatics  should 
be  baptized,  and  gaye  [restricted  ?]  the  [power  of]  Baptizing  to 
the  three  Orders.  Again,  the  Synod  of  Carthage  appointed 
that  on  the  Great  Thursday  [the  faithful]  should  Communicate 
in  the  holy  j\Iysteries  after  their  evening  meal,  in  imitation  of 
that  Supper  of  the  Lord.  But  the  Sixth  (Ecumenical  Synod 
set  aside  that  canon,  and  ordered  that  the  Bishops  and  Priests 
should  on  that  day  perform  the  immaculate  Service  fasting,  and 
that  the  people  to  whom  they  should  give  the  same  holy  Myste- 
ries should  be  fasting  too.  And  what  is  stronger  still,  even  the 
Apostolical  Constitutions  and  Canons  the  holy  Fathers  after- 
wards amended  on  occasion ;  as  we  see  was  done  by  the  Sixth 
(Ecumenical  Synod  in  Canon  xii.,  which  runs  thus :  "  Though 
it  be  said"  (that  is,  in  the  Apostolical  Canons,)  "that  Bishops 
are  not  to  send  aivay  their  ivives,  still,  in  order  to  the  greater 
profit  of  religion  ice  command  that  he  who  is  appointed  Bishop 
shall  thenceforth  no  more  live  with  his  ivife."  And  many  other 
such-like  things  there  are  to  be  found  laid  down  by  earlier  holy 
Synods  which  were  amended  by  other  later  Synods  without 
any  blame  :  neither  did  they  who  made  such  amendments  blame 
or  contemn  those  earlier  Synods  which  they  amended.  And 
thus  now  also  let  none  doubt  or  find  fault  on  account  of  the 
correction  made  of  the  Synod  formerly  held  under  the  Patriarch 
I'hilaret  Nikctich.  For  it  is  properly  done,  and  in  agreement 
with  the  above  mentioned  precedents. 

But  if  any  one  is  obstinate,  and  persists  in  wishing  to  rebap- 
tize  the  Latins,  he  should  consider  Canon  xlvii.  of  the  Holy 
Apostles  :  "  //  amj  Bishop  or  Priest  baptize  over  again  him,  who 
has  received  the  true  Baptism,  or  do  not  Baptize  him  who  has 


OF    REBAPTIZING    WESTERN    CHRISTIANS.  195 

been  polluted  by  the  heretics,  let  him  be  deposed:"  and  Canon  Iv. 
uliicli  has  been  cited  above,  (folio  3,  overleaf:)  For  that  Canon 
orders  to  rebaptize  certain  who  were  Baptized  with  one  immer- 
sion :  and  Canon  xlix.  of  the  same :  "  If  any  Bishop  or  Priest 
do  not  Baptize,  according  to  the  Lord's  command,  into  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  but  into  three  unoriginated,  or  into  three 
Sons,  or  into  three  Paracletes,  let  him  be  deposed." 

Such  heretics  then  as  these  Apostolical  Canons  and  the  above 
recited  Canons  of  the  Fathers  made  subsequently  to  them  order 
us  to  Baptize  we  ought  to  Baptize :  but  as  for  those  that  have 
been  Baptized  in  the  Name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost,  we  do  not  find  in  the  divine  Canons  of  the  holy 
Apostles  and  the  Fathers  that  they  are  to  be  rebaptized. 

And  with  regard  to  the  Latin  Baptism  which  is  administered 
with  three  affusions  in  the  Name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Most  Holy  Patriarchs  Paisius  of  Alexandria, 
Macarius  of  Antioch,  and  Joasaph  of  Moscow,  and  the  Most 
lleverend  Metropolitans,  Archbishops,  and  Bishops,  and  the 
whole  sacred  Synod,  having  heard  these  extracts,  determined 
the  matter  thus  :  That  it  is  not  proper  to  Baptize  those  who  come 
over  to  the  holy  Apostolic  Eastern  Church  from  the  Latins. 

And  in  confirmation  of  this  decree  the  Most  Holy  CEcumeni- 
cal  Patriarchs  Paisius  of  Alexandria  and  Macarius  of  Antioch 
laid  before  the  Synod  an  ancient  Greek  book  in  which  was 
written  how  in  the  year  of  the  world  6992,  (or  from  the  Incar- 
nation 1484,)  there  was  held  a  Synod  in  Constantinople  in  the 
church  of  the  Most  Holy  IMother  of  God  called  Pammacariste 
by  the  four  Most  Holy  and  Most  Blessed  Oecumenical  Patriarchs 
Simeon  of  Constantinople,  Gregory  of  Alexandria,  Dorotheus  of 
Antioch,  and  Joachim  of  Jerusalem,  for  the  correction  and  re- 
jection of  the  unholy  Synod  which  had  been  held  at  Florence. 
This  holy  Synod  decreed  that  "  If  any  from  among  the  Latins 
return  to  the  Orthodox  and  Catholic  Eastern  Church,  they  are  to 
be  anointed  with  holy  Chrism,  but  are  not  to  be  rebaptized." 
This  holy  Synod  prescribed  also  the  Form  to  be  used  in  re- 
ceiving them ;  how  we  are  to  question  them  and  make  them 
to  anathematize  the  Latin  heresies,  and  afterwards  to  anoint 
them  with  holy  Chrism,  and  say  Prayers  over  them,  and  further 
to  take  a  writing  from  them  to  the  Great  Church. 

o  2 


196  FOUR    DOCUMENTS    CONCERNING    THE    PRACTICE 

The  like  directions  are  given  by  the  most  wise  and  holy  Mark, 
Metropolitan  of  Ephesus,  in  his  Eucyclical  Epistle  beginning 
with  these  words  :  "  Christians  over  all  the  earth  and  in  the 
islands  :"  in  which  after  much  other  matter  he  says  also  that 
"  Such  as  come  from  the  Latins  to  orthodoxy  we  receive  like 
Arians,  Macedonians,  Sabbatians,  and  Novatians,  on  their  (jiving 
a  writing,  and  anathematizing  every  heresy  which  holds  not  with 
the  Holy  Eastern  Church  :  and  in  virtue  of  Canon  vii.  of  the  Second 
Council  we  seal  them  [with  Chrism]  on  the  forehead,  eyes,  ^c, 
according  to  the  rubric,  saying,  '  The  Seal  of  the  Gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  Amen.'  "  Behold,  thus  writes  and  directs  the 
most  holy  Mark  of  Ephesus  :  In  accordance  with  whom  the 
most  holy  Patriarchs  with  the  whole  sacred  Synod  have  made 
this  their  present  decree  : 

"  Paisius  of  Moscow,  Macarius  of  Antioch,  Joasaph  of  Mos- 
cow, and  the  whole  sacred  Synod :     Having  this  day  read  over 
the  extracts  made  from  the  Acts  of  that  Synod  which  was  held 
in  the  time  of  the  Patriarch  of  Moscow  Philaret  Niketich,  we 
have  found   that  the  writers  proposed  unfairly  to  that  Synod 
references  to  the  Canons  which  are  not  sufficient  to  justify  the 
rebaptizing  of  the  Latins.     Further,  in  the  Acts  of  that  Synod 
we  have  found  canons  not  agreeing  with  the  Canons,  and  refer- 
ences or  quotations  not  at  all  agreeing  with  the  Canons,  as  that 
same  Synodal  Exposition  itself  shows,  from  which  the  discord  of 
Canons  and  references  has  now  been  written  out.     And  now  we 
haveall  judged  unanimously  that  it  isnot  right  to  rebaptize Latins; 
but  that  after  having  anathematized  their  heresies  and  confessed 
their  sins  they  ought  to  be  anointed  with  holy  Chrism,  and  so 
be  admitted  to  the  divine  Mysteries,  and  to  the  Communion  of 
the  holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Eastern  Church,  according  to 
the  sacred  Canons  of  which  mention  has  been  made  more  at 
leno-th  above.     But  as  respects  them  that  are  displeased  that 
the  Synod  held  under  the  Most  Holy  Philaret  Niketich  Patriarch 
of   Moscow  should  be  corrected,  something  has  been    already 
said  above.     Thus  we  all  give  a  trustworthy  witness  synodically 
to  the  divine  Canons,  and  have  decided  unanimously  that  from 
this  day  they  who  come  from  the  Latins  to  our  orthodox  Chris- 
tian faith  of  the  holy  Eastern  Church  are  not  to  be  rebaptized, 
but  are  to   be  received   according  to  the  form  and  testimony 


OF    REBAPTIZING    WESTERN    CHRISTIANS.  197 

written  above.  Thus  we  have  unanimously  decreed,  and  have 
subscribed  with  our  hands  in  the  year  of  the  world  7175,  from 
the  Incarnation  1667,  the  — th  day  of  June." 

This  Act  is  signed  by  the  three  Patriarchs  Paisius  of  Alexan- 
dria, Macarius  of  Antioch,  and  Joasaph  of  Moscow,  (the  Patri- 
archs of  Constantinople  and  Jerusalem  having  also  given  their 
assent  to  the  holding  of  the  Synod,  and  assenting  to  its  acts 
afterwards,)  by  six  Greek  Metropolitans  of  Nice,  Ainasia,  Ico- 
nium,Trebizond,  Varna,  and  Chios,  and  four  Russian  of  Novgorod, 
Kazan,  llostofF,  and  Kroutitz,  by  a  Metropolitan  of  Georgia,  by 
the  Metropolitan  of  Servia,  by  Paisius  formerly  Archbishop  of 
Gaza,  by  the  Archbishops  of  Sinai  and  Wallachia,  by  six  Rus- 
sian Archbishops  of  Vologda,  Smolensk,  Souzdal,  Riazan,  Tver, 
and  PskofF,  and  by  five  Bishops  of  Kolomna,  Viatka,  Slavono- 
serbsk,  ChernigofF,  and  IMstislavla,  with  more  than  fifty  Archi- 
mandrites, Hegoumens,  and  Protopresbyters,  besides  monks  and 
other  clerks. 

III. 

(A.D.  1718,  August  31.)  "A  Letter  to  the  Emperor  Peter  I. 
from  Jeremiah  III.  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  directing  that 
Lutherans  and  Calvinists  coming  over  to  the  Orthodox  Greek 
Faith  are  not  to  he  rebaptized,  but  are  to  be  anointed  with  holy 
Chrism."  {Extracted  and  translated  from  the  Russian  version 
printed  in  the  Full  Collection  of  Russian  Laws.) 

"  After  that  any  matters  which  seem  doubtful  have  been  pro- 
posed by  questions  for  fitting  and  ready  decision  according  to 
the  orthodox  confession  of  Christ's  holy  Church,  and  by  exa- 
mination and  determination  of  a  Synod  the  difficulty  respecting 
tbem  has  been  done  away  and  the  doubt  dissolved,  the  same 
ought  to  be  and  to  remain  as  has  been  determined  by  the  Synod, 
that  is,  unquestioned,  and  unmeddled  with  by  posterity  :  Or 
rather,  if  ever  any  doubt  should  arise  respecting  any  such  deci- 
sion tending  to  change,  we  ought  to  exert  ourselves  in  every 
way  to  defend  the  same  decision  as  a  good  enactment  of  our 
ancestors,  and  by  all  means  to  hinder  its  being  set  aside.  For 
this  end,  as  it  seems,  most  exalted  and  pacific  Sovereign,  you 
have  communicated  to  us  on  this  matter  by  your  letter  not  long 
ago.     In   that  letter  you  put  a  question,  and  desire  from  the 


198  FOUR    DOCUMENTS    CONCERNING    THE    PRACTICE 

Great  Church  of  Christ  a  judgment  concerning  Lutherans  and 
Calvinists  who  corae  over  to  the  pious  and  pure  doctrine  of  our 
orthodox  faith^  whether  they  ought  to  be  rebaptized,  or  be 
added  to  the  sons  and  heirs  of  the  heavenly  kingdom  by  being 
anointed  only  with  the  divine  Chrism  ? 

"  This  same  question  was  proposed  in  time  past  by  certain 
other  persons  also  of  blessed  memory  to  the  Patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople, Cyprian.  And  when  this  matter  had  been  carefully  con- 
sidered and  examined  into  by  a  sacred  Synod,  it  was  decreed,  in 
conformity  with  the  holy  Canons,  (which  I  consider  it  superflu- 
ous to  write  out  here  at  length  or  to  enumerate  by  their  titles,) 
that  they  ought  to  be  perfected  by  unction  only  with  the  holy 
Chrism,  and  by  no  means  to  be  rebaptized,  when  they  come 
voluntarily  to  the  light  of  the  orthodox  Service,  after  they  have 
first  abjured  their  strange  paternal  traditions  and  unseemly 
opinions,  and  have  confessed  sincerely  all  that  in  spiritual  mat- 
ters is  taught  and  preached  by  the  Catholic  Apostolic  and  Eas- 
tern Church. 

"And  so,  since  such  was  the  judgment  respecting  this  question 
of  that  Patriarch,  who  was  illustrious  at  the  time,  and  of  the 
holy  Bishops  who  were  with  him,  the  same  is  likewise  the  judg- 
ment of  our  mediocrity.  We  judge  in  agreement  with  them, 
and  make  no  contrary  constitution  concerning  this  matter,  but 
confirm  their  decree,  and  ordain  that  the  same  be  held  un- 
changeable for  ever. 

"  Wherefore,  by  this  confirmatory  Patriarchal  rescript  we  de- 
clare that  such  as  leave  the  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  heresies 
and  unite  themselves  to  the  pious  confession  of  the  pure  faith  of 
orthodox  Christians,  holding  and  confessing  all  that  the  Eastern 
Church  well  and  piously  teaches,  are  no  more  to  be  rebaptized, 
but  are  to  be  anointed  only  with  the  holy  Chrism,  and  so  to  be 
made  perfect  Christians  and  sons  of  light  and  heirs  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven. 

"  Wherefore  also  this  Epistle  is  now  sent  to  your  Pacific  Ma- 
jesty, that  this  matter  may  be  settled  without  any  manner  of 
doubt  for  the  future,  as  we  have  herein  written,"  &c.  [Signed  by 
Jeremiah  III.,  Archbishop  of  Const antinojjle,  ivJiich  is  New  Rome, 
and  (Ecumenical  Pa/riarch.] 


OF    REBAPTIZING    WESTERN    CHRISTIANS.  199 

IV. 

"  A  Constitution^^  of  the  Holy  Church  of  Christ  defending  the 
Holy  Baptism  given  from  God,  and  spitting  upon  the  Baptisms 
of  the  heretics  which  are  otherwise  administered." 

"  There  being  many  means  througli  which  our  salvation  is 
conveyed  to  us,  and  these,  lii^e  the  rounds  of  a  ladder,  all  let  into 
and  supporting  and  succeeding  one  another,  as  looking  all  to 
one  end,  the  first  of  these  means  is  Baptism,  which  was  en- 
trusted from  God  to  the  Holy  Apostles,  inasmuch  as  none  of  the 
rest  without  this  can  have  any  place  :  (For  '  except  a  man,'  He 
saith,  'be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.)  For  it  was  necessary  that  as  our  first 
birth  or  generation  introduces  each  man  into  this  mortal  life,  so 
another  generation  should  be  found,  and  a  more  mysterious 
way,  neither  beginning  from  corruption  nor  ending  in  corrup- 
tion, through  which  it  might  be  possible  for  us  to  imitate  the 
Captain  of  our  salvation,  Jesus  Christ.  For  the  water  in  the 
font  is  taken  for  a  womb,  and  gives  birth  to  him  who  is 
born,  as  Chrysostom  says :  and  the  Spirit  supervening  in  the 
water  is  the  power  of  God  fashioning  the  embryo.  And  as  He, 
after  He  had  been  laid  down  in  the  sepulchre,  rose  up  on 
the  third  day  to  life,   so   believers  going  under  the  water  in- 

*  In  the  "  2uXA.o77}  rSiv  deiaii'  rrjs  Trlanus  Aoyndraiv^'  of  Athanasius  Parius, 
as  revised  and  edited  by  Macarius  Notaras  Archbishop  of  Corinth,  and  printed 
at  Leipzig  a.  d.  1806,  at  p.  350,  there  is  a  note  giving  the  following  account  of 
this  Patriarchal  Constitution  of  1756  : 

«'  About  the  middle  of  the  last  century  (the  eighteenth,)  at  Constantinople 
there  v?as  moved  this  question,  whether  such  as  are  converted  from  the  Latins 
ought  to  be  Baptized.  And  there  was  no  small  division  among  the  chief  men  of 
the  Clergy,  some  insisting  that  it  should  be  so,  and  some  that  it  should  not. 
Cyril  the  Patriarch,  [who  had  before  been  Metropolitan]  of  Nicomedia,  was  a 
most  ardent  partizan  and  supporter  of  those  who  were  determined  that  the  La- 
tins should  be  Baptized.  And  as  he  was  seeking  for  judgments  of  theologians 
with  a  view  to  this,  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  Matthew,  who  was  then  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  was  a  very  close  friend  of  his,  suggested  to  him  that,  if  he  wished 
to  obtain  a  safe  and  most  complete  judgment,  the  only  man  capable  of  giving 
him  such  an  one  was  the  learned  physician  Eustratius  Argentes  of  Scio,  who 
was  in  Scio  at  the  time.  For  he  had  been  acquainted  with  him  during  a  long 
time  in  Egypt,  and  so  knew  how  well  skilled  he  was  in  Ecclesiastical  matters. 
The  Patriarch  Cyril   wrote    to   him  :  and  he  having  such  a  judgment  [on  the 


200  FOUR    DOCUMENTS    CONCERNING    THE    PRACTICE 

stead  of  tlie  earth,  represent  by  three  submersions  their  union 
by  grace  with  the  resurrection  on  the  third  day,  the  water  being 
sanctified  by  the  supervention  of  the  allholy  Spirit,  so  that 
while  by  the  visible  water  the  body  is  enlightened,  the  invisible 
Spirit  gives  sanctification  to  the  soul.  For  as  the  water  in  a 
cauldron  receives  and  holds  the  heat  of  the  fire,  so  the  water  in 
the  font  by  the  working  of  the  Spirit  is  transelemented  into  di- 
vine virtue,  cleansing  and  giving  the  grace  of  adoption  to  them 
that  are  thus  Baptized ;  but  as  for  them  that  are  initiated  in  any 
other  way,  instead  of  giving  cleansing  and  adoption,  showing 
them  to  be  polluted,  and  children  of  darkness. 

"  And  now,  whereas  three  years  ago  a  question  was  raised 
whether  the  Baptisms  of  the  heretics  administered  contrary 
to  the  tradition  of  the  holy  Apostles  and  the  divine  Fathers, 
and  contrary  to  the  custom  and  law  of  the  Catholic  and  Apos- 
tolic Church,  are  to  be  allowed  when  they  come  over  to  us,  we, 
as  having  by  God's  mercy  been  bred  up  in  the  orthodox  Church, 
and  following  the  canons  of  the  holy  Apostles  and  the  divine 
Fathers,  and  knowing  only  one,  our  own,  Holy  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  Church,  acknowledge  only  her  Sacraments,  and  con- 
sequently also  her  divine  Baptism  ;  but  as  for  those  of  the  here- 
tics, which  are  not  administered  as  the  Holy  Ghost  com- 
manded the  holy  Apostles,  and  as  the  Church  of  Christ  has 
ever  administered  them,  and  administers  them  at  this  present  day, 

question  as  the  Patriarch  wanted]  ready  by  him  in  the  form  of  a  special  treatise, 
sent  it  to  His  Allholiness.  So  having  received  the  hook,  and  having  gotten 
from  it  abundant  certainty  that  the  Latins  are  absolutely  and  beyond  all  doubt  un- 
baptized,  {ndvTri  -navTais  afidnTicTTot,)  he  forthwith  put  forth  a  Constitution, 
which  the  other  Patriarchs  also  accepted  and  subscribed,  that  from  thenceforth 
the  Latins  who  come  over  to  our  Church  are  to  be  Baptized.  So  consecutive 
and  powerful  is  that  book,  that  not  even  those  most  hateful  [heretics]  themselves 
could  reply  to  it.  For  when  it  was  published  (being  printed  at  the  press  of  the 
Armenians,  which  was  bad  enough,)  it  made  a  great  noise,  so  that  the  Venetian 
Consul  having  asked  to  see  it,  but  not  being  able  to  understand  it  from  its  being 
in  Greek,  employed  a  man  to  translate  it  for  him  into  Italian  ;  and  having  read 
it  in  that  language,  sent  it  so  translated  to  the  Venetian  Senate.  But  to  the 
present  day  no  answer  to  it  has  either  appeared  or  been  heard  of :  so  unan- 
swerable is  it.  For  who  can  say  that  the  word  to  baptize  (that  is,  to  dip)  does 
not  signify  to  plunge  under  the  water  that  which  is  baptized  ?  Or  that  in  the 
grave  not  the  whole  body  is  buried,  but  only  a  part  of  it  ?  Or  that  the  maternal 
womb  does  not  contain  the  whole  infant  but  only  a  part  of  it  ?  Or  who  can 
contradict  Paul,  or  Dionysius,  or  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  ?    "We  have  ourselves  heard 


OF    REBAPTIZING    WESTERN    CHRISTIANS.  201 

but  are  inventions  of  corrupt  men,  we  judging  them  to  be  mon- 
strous and  alien  to  the  whole  tradition  of  the  Apostles,  do  reject 
them  by  common  determination  ;  and  such  as  come  over  to  us 
from  them  we  receive  as  unordained  and  uubaptized  ;  following 
herein  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  (Who  bade  His  disciples  to  Bap- 
tize in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,)  and  the  holy  and  divine  Apostles  (who  com- 
mand us  to  Baptize  proselytes  by  three  submersions  and  emer- 
sions, and  at  each  of  the  submersions  to  pronounce  one  Name  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,)  and  the  holy  and  Apostolic  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite  (who  saith  that  the  proselyte  being  stripped  of  all 
clothing,  the  Priest  is  to  Baptize  him  thrice  in  a  font  having 
water  and  oil  consecrated  in  it,  invoking  the  Triperosnal  Essence 
of  the  Divine  Beatitude ;  and  immediately  after  is  to  seal  the 
person  Baptized  with  the  most  divinely-working  Chrism,  and 
further  communicate  him  in  the  perfecting  Mystery  of  the  holy 
Eucharist;)  and  the  Second  and  Quinisext  holy  CEcumenical 
Synods,  which  command  that  with  respect  to  such  as  are  not 
Baptized  with  three  submersions  and  emersions,  and  do  not  at 
each  one  of  the  submersions  pronounce  the  invocation  of  one  of  the 
Divine  Persons,  but  are  Baptized  in  any  other  way,  we  are  to  re- 
ceive all  such  as  uubaptized,  when  they  come  over  to  orthodoxy. 
"  Therefore,  we  also,  following  the  holy  and  divine  Constitu- 

it  praised  by  the  lips  of  the  most  learned  Eugenius  [Bulgaris]  with  expressions 
of  admiration.  And  so  they  are  now  Baptized  everywhere,  although  some  moved 
rather  by  feeling,  or  perhaps  rather  by  ignorance,  still  even  now  are  inclined  to 
make  opposition,  putting  forward  the  well-known  former  rule  (tV  <pepoij.4vTjv 
diaraliy)  which  receives  Latin  converts  by  unction  with  Chrism.  But  they  do 
not  understand  that  they  who  lived  in  those  former  times  made  this  order  of 
economy,  on  account  of  the  great  power  of  Popery  and  the  tyranny  they  were 
afraid  of:  (Sia  rhv  jipaafjlbv  rov  XlaitKrixov  kcu  tV  Tvpavviav)  But  now  the 
season  of  economy  has  passed  ;  as  Divine  Providence  has  set  a  guardian  [the 
Turk]  over  us,  and  the  rage  of  the  Papists  shall  no  more  have  power  against  us. 
Secondly,  we  bid  him  who  comes  over  to  us  from  the  Latins  to  anathematize  all 
Popish  innovations,  and  he  anathematizes  them.  But  one  of  these  innovations, 
and  the  first  and  worst,  is  the  setting  at  naught  of  the  Apostolic  Baptism  ;  and 
he  delivers  this  together  with  the  rest  to  anathema  or  to  Satan,  How  then  after 
this  shall  any  one  recognize  as  valid,  as  holy,  and  divine,  that  which  he  has  al- 
ready subjected  to  anathema,  and  confirm  it  by  the  divine  Chrism,  saying,  '  The 
seal  of  the  Gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  V  The  Gift  of  what  Holy  Ghost  can  the 
innovation  be,  that  which  is  anathematized  and  satanical  ?  Verily  this  is  to 
combine  things  incompatible,  and  to  cast  holy  things  to  the  dogs." 


202  FOUR    DOCUMENTS    CONCERNING    THE    PRACTICE 

tions  judge  that  the  Baptisms  of  the  heretics  are  to  be  rejected  and 
abhorred,  as  unnatural,  and  alien  from  the  Apostolic  and  Divine 
commandment^  and  as  waters  which  cannot  profit  (as  St.  Am- 
brose and  Athanasius  the  Great  say,)  nor  give  any  sanctification 
to  such  as  receive  them,  nor  avail  at  all  to  the  washing  away  of 
sins.  And  such  as  are  baptized  by  them  with  a  baptism  which 
is  no  Baptism  we  receive  as  unbaptized  when  they  come  over  to 
the  orthodox  faith,  and  without  any  manner  of  scruple  or  risk 
we  Baptize  them,  according  to  the  Canons  of  the  holy  Apostles 
and  the  Councils,  on  which  rests  firmly  the  holy  Apostolic  and 
Cathohc  Church  of  Christ,  which  is  the  mother  of  us  all.  And 
upon  this  our  common  determination  and  judgment  we  set  our 
seals  to  this  our  present  Constitution,  which  accords  with  the 
decrees  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Councils,  confirming  it  by  our 
subscriptions,  in  the  year  of  salvation  mdcclvi."  "+  Cyril, 
hij  the  mercy  of  God  Archbishop  of  Constantinople  or  New  Rome, 
and  (Ecumenical  Patriarch."  "  +  Matthew,  by  the  mercy  of 
God  Pope  and  Patriarch  of  the  great  City  of  Alexandria,  and 
(Ecumenical  Judge."  "  +  Parthenius,  by  the  mercy  of  God  Pa- 
triarch of  the  Holy  City  of  Jerusalem,  and  all  Palestine." 

If  it  should   be  observed  by  the  Greek  reader  that  the  last 
of  the  four  Documents  printed   in   this  Chapter  is  at  variance 
with  the  three  others  preceding  it,  as  well  as  with  the  earlier 
Synods  held  at  Constantinople  to  which  they  refer,  he  may  be 
reminded  that  it  is  no  new  thing  for  the  error  of  older  local 
Synods  to  be  corrected  by  larger  or  oecumenical  Synods  after- 
wards: and  that  therefore  the  Constitution  signed  in  1756  by 
three  Patriarchs  is  now  to  be  followed  rather  than  the  decrees  of 
the  Synod  held  at  Constantinople  in  1484-,  signed  by  the  four 
Patriarchs  and  twenty-four  Metropolitans;  and  than  those  of  the 
Synod  held  at  Moscow  in   1667,  attested  and  signed  by  three 
Patriarchs,  by  twenty-five  Greek,  Russian,  Georgian,  Servian, 
and  Wallachian  Bishops,   and  by   above  fifty  Archimandrites, 
Hcgoumens,  and  Arch-Priests,  besides  other  monks  and  clerks. 
Or  again,  if  any  one  doubt  whether  the  authority  of  a  Consti- 
tution signed  by  three  Patriarchs  is  really  greater  than  that  of 
the   Synods  above  mentioned,  he  may  fall  back  upon  this  con- 
sideration, that  at  any  rate  the  Apostolical,  and  Oecumenical,  and 
other  Canons,  and  above  all  the  divine  Scriptures,  as  interpreted 


OF    REBAPTIZING    WESTERN    CHRISTIANS.  203 

by  three  Patriarchs  and  by  ourselves,  are  of  greater  Ecclesiastical 
authority  than  any  decree  or  interpretation  made  hy  the  Synods 
of  1484  and  1667,  or  by  any  other  Synods  which  are  not  con- 
curred in  by  ourselves. 

Also,  if  the  Constitution  of  1756  by  itself  scarcely  outweighs 
the  decrees  of  the  earlier  Councils,  yet  with  the  help  of  the  book 
intitled  " StyiXItsuo-is  tov  '/^«vTicr/x,ou  "  to  which  it  is  appended,  it 
may  be  thought  abundantly  to  outweigh  them.  For  that  book  was 
published  by  the  then  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  in  the  name 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  herself:  and  the  authority  of  the 
Church  herself  is  doubtless  superior  to  that  of  any  local  Synods. 
And  in  that  book  the  Church  herself  (if  we  may  believe  the  Pa- 
triarch publishing  it,)  says  "to  them  that  are  obstinate,  and  per- 
sist in  their  fault,  and  are  dastardly  cowards,  and  object  that  the 
local  Synod  held  at  Constantinople  {in  1484)  by  iiventy-four 
Archbishops  admitted  the  salt-ivater  sprinkling  and  satanical 
deadly  affusion  of  the  Papists  as  Baptism,  that  ice  (V^^O  not- 
withstandinff  reject  this  doctrine  as  evil,  heretical,  and  worthy  of 
anathema  :  and  that  as  many  as  admit  the  Popish  sprinkling  or 
affusion,  are  under  the  influence  of  the  evil  spirit,  and  make 
themselves  like  to  the  Jews  who  were  the  murderers  of  Christ, 
a7id  to  the  generations  of  vipers''  Who  after  this  will  not 
tremble  to  assert  that  the  authority  of  the  Synods  of  1484 
and  1667  is  greater  than  that  of  the  Constitution  of  1756? 
Or,  if  fear  be  a  less  legitimate  motive  than  reasonable  conviction, 
let  him  that  doubts  only  read  the  book  intitled  "  ^VyjX/Tgus-jj 
Tou  'Pavrio-jaoi)-"  and  if  he  finds  it  distinguished  throughout  by 
accurate  learning,  just  dispassionate  reasoning,  and  a  spirit  of 
longsufFering,  charity,  and  holiness,  he  will  perhaps  doubt  no 
longer,  but  will  receive  both  it  and  the  Constitution  appended  to 
it  as  the  true  voice  and  law  of  the  Church  moved  and  empowered 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  abrogate  and  condemn  the  decrees  and 
usage  of  former  Synods,      Oremus  ! 


DISSERTATION  XIV. 

OF    THE    WORD    AND    DOCTRINE    OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

That  the  Bread  and  Wine  in  the  Holy  Eucharist  are  after  con- 
secration Christ's  Body  and  Blood,  which  they  were  not  before, 
is  the  constant  doctrine  of  the  whole  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Church,  received  originally  from  the  lips  of  the  Lord  Himself, 
Who  said  not  "This  is  joined  with,"  or  "This  signifies,"  but 
"This  is"',  and  Who,  having  created  all  things,  knew  also  how 
to  employ  words ;  nor  left  it  for  any  man  to  modify  the  force  of 
His  words,  or  to  substitute  others  in  their  stead. 

In  the  language  of  the  Liturgies  and  of  the  Fathers  the 
"  Gifts  "  or  "  Oblations,''  that  is,  the  "  species "  or  kinds  of 
bread  and  wine,  are  said  to  be  changed,  transferred,  transfi- 
gured, transformed,  transmuted,  or  transelemented  into  the 
Body  and  Blood  of  Christ.  And  since  this  change  is  plainly 
not  a  sensible  one  of  place  or  form  or  figure,  and  yet  is  believed 
to  be  real,  such  expressions  as  "  transmuted  "  and  "  transele- 
mented," which  naturally  import  something  deep  and  inward, 
must  so  far  be  more  appropriate,  and  approximate  more  to  the 
truth,  than  such  expressions  as  "  transferred,"  "  transfigured," 
or  "  transformed,"  which  in  their  primary  and  literal  sense  are 
plainly  inappropriate. 

Subsequently  to  the  separation  of  the  East  from  the  West 
the  Latins  added  to  those  words  which  they  had  formerly  used 
in  common  with  the  Greeks  a  new  term  "  transubstantiation," 
and  insisted  on  its  use  as  necessary.  Distinguishing  all  that 
meets  the  senses,  or  is  capable  of  meeting  the  senses,  in  the 
bread  and  wine  from  their  deeper  essence  and  being,  and 
calling  the  former  "accidents"  and  the  latter  "substance,"  they 
assert  that  while  the  accidents  remain  unchanged,  as  appears 


OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION.  205 

plain  to  sense,  the  substance,  that  is,  the  innermost  nature  or 
essence  which  is  beyond  sense,  is  changed ;  as  it  plainly  must 
be  in  some  way  if  there  is  any  true  change  at  all. 

The  Easterns  understanding  the  word  "  transubstantiation " 
to  be  simply  synonymous  with  their  own  older  words  of  "  trans- 
mutation "  and  "  transeleraentation,"  and  wishing  to  show  their 
hearty  agreement  with  the  Latins  in  condemning  the  heresies 
of  Luther  and  Calvin,  have  accepted  this  word,  and  now  use  it 
freely  among  themselves,  refusing  to  listen  to  the  scruples  of 
some  who  disliked  it  merely  because  it  was  novel,  and  because 
it  came  to  them  from  the  West,  Not  to  mention  the  writings 
of  many  individuals  of  the  modern  Greeks,  especially  such  as  had 
studied  in  Italy,  the  word  transubstantiation  was  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  deliberately  employed  in  the  "  Orthodox  Confes- 
sion'"' of  1648  :  it  passed  from  thence  into  the  xvm.  Articles 
of  the  Synod  of  Bethlehem  in  1672 :  and  quite  recently,  in  1839, 
it  has  been  deliberately  retained  and  noticed  in  the  present  au- 
thorized Catechism  of  the  Russian  Church. 

The  Lutherans,  the  Calvinists,  and  with  some  few  exceptions 
the  Anglicans  also,  reject  the  word  "transubstantiation"  for 
the  contrary  reason  to  that  for  which  the  Easterns  accept  it ; 
namely,  because  they  deny  that  there  is  any  real  change,  trans- 
mutation, or  transelementation  :  and  they  justify  themselves 
commonly  by  the  incorrect  assertion  that  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation contradicts  the  senses :  whereas  they  should 
rather  say  that  the  natural  prima  facie  presumption  that  what  is 
not  sensibly  changed  is  not  changed  at  all  is  stronger  with  them 
than  their  faith  in  Christ's  words,  or  in  the  tradition  and  in- 
terpi'etation  of  His  Church. 

However,  the  word  "  transubstantiation  "  is  not  in  fact  merely 
a  fresh  synonym  added  to  the  words  in  use  before ;  but  it  is  also 
connected  with  a  certain  scholasticnl  theory,  according  to  which 
things  known  to  us  through  the  senses  are  physically  com- 
pounded of  substance  and  accidents ;  and  according  to  which  the 
physical  substances  of  bread  and  wine  in  the  Eucharist  cease  to 
exist,  while  their  physical  accidents  remain  miraculously  sus- 
pended and  not  inhering  in  any  subject.  This  explanation  or 
definition  of  the  manner  of  the  change  {any  further  definition  of 
which  is  declared  to  be  impossible,)  seems  to  be  recognized  by 


206  OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

allusion  in  the  decree  itself  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  is  dis- 
tinctly taught  in  the  Catechism  published  by  Pope  Pius  V.  in 
the  name  of  that  Council.  And  among  the  Greeks,  besides 
finding  favour  with  many  individual  writers,  it  has  been  em- 
ployed in  two  public  documents,  the  Orthodox  Confession  and 
the  xviu.  Articles  of  the  Synod  of  Bethlehem,  which  are  for 
them  of  about  the  same  authority  as  the  Catechism  of  Pope 
Pius  may  be  for  the  Latins. 

It  may  be  questioned  indeed  whether  propositions  concerning 
the  real  and   separate  existence  of  individuals,  species,  genera, 
and  substances,  individual  and  specific  and  generic  accidents, 
differences,  and  properties,  could  ever  become  articles  of  faith, 
even  if  they  were  imposed  as  such   by  (Ecumenical   Councils, 
Still,  as  every  art  and  science  has  power  to  make  its  own  words, 
so  the   Church  also,  even  if  she   seemed  to  misuse  popular  or 
scientific  language,  would  yet  within  her  own  sphere  be  amen- 
able only  to   her  own  will.     So  far  as  any  thing  she   decreed 
had  really  respect  to  faith,  she  would  be  always  right,  whatever 
words  were  used ;  and  if  in  any  thing  she  mistook  the  precise 
boundary  of  faith,   and  erred  in  matters  beyond  her  province, 
such  an  error  would  be  no  real  objection  against  her  religious 
infallibility.     For  instance,  if  the   Church  had  condemned  as 
heresy  (which  she  has  not,)  the  proposition  that  the  earth  turns 
round  the  sun,  this  in  the  sense  ultimately  intended,  and  in  the 
only  sense  in  which  it  really  has  to  do  with  the  faith,  would  be 
no  error ;   (for  the  earth   does  not  turn   round  the  sun  in  such 
sense  as  to  overthrow  the  Scripture  in  which  the  sun  is  said  to 
turn  round  the  earth,  and  to  be  arrested  in  his  course,  or  to  be 
brought  back ;)  although  in  her  manner  of  connecting  this  truth 
with  physics,  which  are  beyond  her  province,  and  in  her  imme- 
diate sense  and  intention  in  decreeing  to  be  faith  or  heresy  what 
was  in  its  own  nature  neither,  the  Church  would  have  been 
completely  in  error.     And  so,  if  the  definition  of  transubstan- 
tiation  by  a  severance  of  accidents  from  substance  were  decreed 
as  a  point  of  faith,   the   proposition  decreed  would   necessarily 
be  true  so  far  as  it  really  pertains   to  faith,  though  it  might 
in    respect   of  logical,    metaphysical,    or  physical    science,    be 
altogether  erroneous.     If  we  were  to  call  all  that  can  by  possi- 
bility fall  under  sense  (that  is,  all  that  the  world  calls  bread  and 


OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION.  207 

wine)  "  accidents,"  or  "  physical  accidents/'  we  might  yet  find  a 
"  substance "  beyond  (we  could  scarcely  call  it  physical  sub- 
stance,) in  that  will  of  God  in  and  by  which  every  creature 
subsists,  and  is  what  it  is,  and  what  it  is  called.  Thus  bread  is 
bread  by  the  will  of  God  ;  and  if  His  will  changes  with  respect 
to  it,  its  substance  is  changed,  and  it  is  transubstantiated  according 
to  the  change  of  His  will,  its  accidents  (that  is,  all  that  t/ie  world 
calls  bread,)  remaining,  if  it  so  please  God,  without  that  original 
will  in  which  they  before  subsisted,  and  by  which  they  were 
what  is  naturally  called  bread. 

But  the  truth  of  the  received  explanation  of  transubstautia- 
tion,  namely,  that  it  is  by  o.  physical  change,  by  the  separation 
of  accidents  from  substance,  is  still  perhaps  in  strictness  even 
within  the  Latin  Church  a  point  undetermined.  The  decree  of 
Trent,  though  it  requires  all  under  pain  of  anathema  to  confess 
that  there  is  a  "  conversion  of  the  whole  substance,"  yet  does 
not  add  the  word  '^ physical ^^  nor  impose  as  of  faith  (supposing 
this  in  the  nature  of  things  to  be  possible,)  that  scholastic  phi- 
losophy which  by  using  the  word  "  substance "  it  seems  to 
recognize  and  to  imply.  And  though  the  Catechism  goes  further, 
still,  this  not  being  the  work  of  the  Council,  but  only  of  the 
Pope,  and  not  having  the  nature  in  every  word  and  clause  of  a 
definition  of  faith,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  belief  of  a  sever- 
ance of  accidents  from  substance  in  the  Eucharistic  change  (any 
more  than  the  word_^re  in  relation  to  Purgatory,)  has  become 
an  article  of  faith  for  the  Latins  merely  because  it  occurs  in 
that  Catechism,  though  it  seems  to  be  at  present  universally 
acquiesced  in,  as  the  best  explanation  that  can  be  devised. 

But  among  the  Easterns  this  is  not  only  regarded  as  an  open 
question  theoretically,  (their  Church  having  never  so  much  as 
considered  it  in  itself,  and  the  Latin  phraseology  having  been 
admitted  only  incidentally,)  but  it  is  open  and  controverted  in 
fact.  The  explanation  of  the  change  by  a  severance  of  accidents 
from  substance  has  been  rejected,  and  is  still  rejected,  by  some  of 
the  most  learned  and  most  respected  of  the  Clergy  both  in  the 
Levant  and  in  Russia :  and  it  has  been  purposely  avoided  and 
corrected  by  the  Russian  Church  herself  both  in  her  Catechism 
(where  she  allows  and  accepts  from  the  Orthodox  Confession 
the  word  "  transubstantiation,"  but  omits  the  explanation  of  it  by 


208  OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

substance  and  accidents,)  and  in  her  authorized  translation 
(which  in  this  i)oint  and  in  one  or  two  others  is  also  a  verbal 
modification)  of  the  xviii.  Articles  of  the  Synod  of  Bethlehem. 

But  if  there  is  a  real  change,  it  may  be  asked,  and  that  an  in- 
wai'd  not  an  outward  change,  what  can  there  be  to  make  any 
one  who  so  believes  suspect  or  disallow  language  which  seems 
well  fitted  to  express  his  belief?  This  question  is  natural, 
and  deserves  an  answer. 

First  then  it  must  be  remembered  that  though  the  Fathers 
say  that  the  bread  and  wine  are  "  transmuted,"  and  "trans- 
elemented,"  they  say  also  that  they  are  "  transferred,"  "  trans- 
figured," and  "  transformed."  And  if  our  belief  now  is  identical 
with  that  of  the  Fathers,  it  ought  to  come  naturally  to  us  not  only 
to  retain  and  to  follow  by  imitation  but  even  spontaneously  to  re- 
originate  and  to  use  all  such  forms  of  speech  as  were  natural  to 
them  ;  and  with  the  same  proportions  of  relative  frequency  and 
emphasis.  But  now,  if  we  adopt  the  Latin  scholasticism,  it  will 
no  longer  come  naturally  to  us  to  say  "  transfigured "  or 
"  transformed  "  at  all :  nor  shall  we  be  free  from  a  certain  dis- 
like of  such  expressions  when  they  meet  us  in  the  works  of  the 
ancient  Fathers. 

Again,  the  Fathers  say  indeed,  and  most  frequently  and  with 
most  emphasis,  that  the  bread,  or  the  substance  or  nature  of 
bread,  is  changed  into  the  Body  of  Christ  :  that  before  conse- 
cration it  was  bread,  now  it  is  bread  no  longer,  but  the  very 
Body  of  Christ;  and  though  our  senses  seem  to  tell  us  that  it 
is  still  bread,  yet  in  these  Mysteries  sense  is  not  to  be  followed 
but  faith.  This  sounds  like  a  physical  transmutation.  But 
then  the  Fathers  say  also  secondly  on  other  occasions  that  in 
this  food  there  are  two  things,  or  that  this  food  is  compounded 
of  two  things,  (not  the  accidents  of  one  thing  and  the  substance 
of  another,  but  two  things,)  one  heavenly  and  the  other  earthly  : 
which  sounds  like  impanation,  or  an  hypostatical  union,  or  like 
the  consubstantlation  of  the  Lutherans.  And  thirdly  they  say 
also,  though  more  rarely,  that  Christ  made  the  bread  to  be 
His  Body,  that  is,  the  figure  of  His  Body ;  and  that  the  bread 
does  not  depart  from  its  proper  nature  :  which  sounds  like  the 
merely  figurative  sense  of  the  Calvinists. 

Now  the  Latins  are  not  only  prevented  by  their  scholasticism 


OF    TRANSUBSTANTTATION.  209 

from  understanding  or  reproducing,  but  are  even  forced  to  re- 
ject and  condemn  as  erroneous  or  heretical  the  last  two  of  the 
three  abovemeutioned  forms  of  speech  :  and  the  efforts  which 
have  been  made  to  explain  away,  correct,  or  destroy  such  pas- 
sages or  wa-itings  of  the  Fathers  as  contain  them  prove  clearly 
enough  that  they  arc  felt  to  be  a  difficulty.  But  it  is  probable 
that  the  true  doctrine  of  the  Fathers  would  illustrate  and  har- 
monize all  these  three  seemingly  conflicting  modes  of  expres- 
sion, would  unite  them  all  together,  and  spontaneously  repro- 
duce them  all  in  due  proportion  and  on  proper  occasions. 

Any  one  can  see  that  the  Calvinistic  or  Sociniauizing  Pro- 
testant who  takes  for  his  symbol  the  rare  assertion  of  the 
Fathers  that  the  Bread  after  consecration  is  z.  figure  of  Christ's 
Body,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other  two  forms  of  speech,  has 
utterly  departed  from  the  faith  of  the  Church.  And  the  old 
Lutheran  who  takes  for  his  symbol  such  expressions  as  that 
of  Irenseus,  that  the  Eucharist  is  compounded  of  two  things, 
denying  the  conversion  of  the  bread  into  the  Body  of  Christ, 
does  also  no  less  clearly  substitute  for  Christ's  words  a 
new  phraseology  of  his  own,  which  cannot  maintain  itself,  and 
which  runs  down  inevitably  into  Calvinism.  The  Latins  on  the 
other  hand,  even  though  they  reject  two  out  of  the  three  modes 
of  speech  used  by  the  Fathers,  yet  do  not  seem  like  the  Cal- 
vinists  and  the  Lutherans  to  destroy  the  faith  ;  because  the 
propositions  which  they  deny  relate  only  to  the  bread,  and  not 
to  the  Body  of  Christ  which  is  the  true  object  of  faith ;  and 
because  they  make  scarcely  any  change  even  in  the  mere  propor- 
tion of  language,  omitting  only  or  rejecting  expressions  which 
are  of  comparatively  rare  occurrence,  while  the  Lutheran  and 
the  Calvinist  omit  and  reject  that  language  which  is  the  ordinary 
and  necessary  expression  of  the  faith,  and  substitute  in  its  stead 
the  ordinary  and  exclusive  use  of  language  which  in  the  Fathers 
is  only  rai'e  and  exceptional,  and  subordinated  to  a  higher 
formula.  Still,  with  all  this,  it  is  probable  that  tbe  Latins  also, 
so  far  as  they  deny  or  suppress  any  part  of  the  language  of  the 
Fathers,  do  some  damage  to  the  analogy  of  faith. 

It  is  true  that  they  sometimes  meet  the  difficulty  in  a  fairer 
way  than  by  the  expurgation  or  mistranslation  of  the  Fathers, 
and  argue  that  when  any  of  the  ancients  say  that  the  bread  and 

p 


210  or  thansubstanttation. 

wine,  the  sjovj^  (that  is,  kinds  or  species,)  the  natures,  or  even 
the  substances,  of  bread  and  wine  remain  after  consecration,  they 
mean  only  what  are  now  more  correctly  distinguished  as  the 
accidents.  This  explanation  is  by  no  means  absurd  or  unworthy 
of  attention  :  for  the  very  words  "  slhc "  and  "  species  "  used 
in  the  second  intention  to  signify  the  kind,  that  is,  the  common 
nature  or  substance  of  bread,  apart  from  the  accidental  pecu- 
liarities of  any  particular  loaf  or  crumb,  originally  and  etymolo- 
gically  mean  appearance,  the  inner  being  or  nature  of  things 
being  known  or  guessed  at  (and  that  vaguely,)  only  from  what 
appears,  and  being  named  therefrom.  And  when  it  is  said  that 
the  bread  remains  "in  substance,^^  this  is  amplified  by  the 
addition  of  the  words  "  both  of  its  shape  and  appearance,'"  (ju,gys» 
yap  stt)  Trig  oiKrlag  xct)  ToD  a^Yjix-aTog  xaj  too  g'lSouj*)  which 
clearly  relate  to  what  are  now  called  accidents.  Still  this  view 
will  not  hold ;  because  the  language  of  the  Fathers,  though  in 
the  letter  it  may  (like  the  words  sldoc  and  species  themselves,) 
specify  only  what  falls  under  sense,  yet  in  its  scope  and  inten- 
tion reaches  forward  to  and  signifies  under  the  name  of  what  is 
sensible  every  thing  beyond  which  is  known  to  us  only  through 
the  senses.  And  in  some  cases  the  whole  force  of  the  argument 
would  be  neutralized  or  reversed  by  the  contrary  supposition. 
For  instance,  when  the  heretic  says  that  the  human  nature  of 
Christ  ceases  to  exist,  having  passed  into  deity,  as  the  nature 
of  bread  ceases  to  exist  in  the  Eucharist,  having  passed  into  the 
Body  of  Christ,  and  the  orthodox  replies  that  he  is  caught  in 
his  own  net,  for  that  in  the  Eucharist  the  nature  of  bread  does 
not  cease,  it  is  impossible  here  to  understand  by  the  words 
"  nature "  or  "  bread "  anything  short  of  the  very  inmost 
physical  substance,  whatever  that  may  be.  For  in  whatever 
degree  it  were  admitted  that  the  nature  of  bread  does  pass  into 
the  Body  of  Christ  so  as  to  cease  to  be,  in  the  same  degree 
the  assertion  of  the  heretic  would  be  admitted,  and  the  form  of 
the  answer  would  be  rendered  improper.  It  w^ould  be  nothing 
to  the  purpose  of  the  heretic  to  reason  from  any  thing  but  a 
cessation  of  the  very  substance  of  the  bread  to  a  cessation  of  the 
very  substance  of  Christ^s  humanity,  nor  would  it  be  to  the 
purpose  of  the  orthodox  to  retort  with  any  thing  else  than  the 
denial  of  the  cessation  alleged. 


or    TRANSUBSTANTIATION.  211 

But  fui'ther,  it  is  not  only  with  reference  to  the  change  of 
man's  food  in  the  Eucharist,  but  also  with  reference  to  the 
change  of  man  himself  in  Baptism  that  we  find  the  same  three 
different  forms  of  language,  and  in  the  same  degrees  of  relative 
frequency  and  emphasis,  used  by  the  Fathers.  For  first,  the 
Fathers  say  that  we  are  in  Baptism  changed,  transfigured,  trans- 
formed, transmuted,  transelemented :  of  which  words  (as  the 
change  is  not  outward  and  yet  real,)  the  strongest,  such  as 
"  transmuted  "  and  "  transelemented  "  (we  might  add  "  tran- 
substantiated,") seem  so  far  the  most  appropriate.  The  Fathers 
therefore  using  these  say  freely  and  ordinarily  that  the  old  man 
born  of  the  flesh  of  Adam  dies  ;  that  we  are  created  anew  and  born 
again  ;  that  we  are  new  creatures  in  Christ,  members  of  His 
Body,  of  His  bones  and  of  His  flesh ;  that  the  old  man  is  put  off, 
and  is  done  away  :  all  w^hich  sounds  like  a  physical  transmuta- 
tion. But  they  say  also  secondly  on  other  occasions,  that  in  the 
Baptized  Christian  there  are  two  natures,  two  lives,  one  from 
the  first  Adam  and  another  from  the  second  ;  and  that  the 
second  Adam  must  contend  against  the  first  till  the  whole  body 
of  sin  be  abolished  :  and  this  sounds  like  a  double  personality, 
a  sort  of  inhabitation  or  consubstantiation.  And  again  thirdly 
they  say,  though  more  rarely,  that  the  Baptized  do  not  really 
die  nor  rise  again,  but  by  a  figure  are  made  partakers  of  Christ, 
and  that  they  remain  after  Baptism  the  very  same  men,  children 
of  Adam,  as  before  :  which  sounds  like  the  merely  figurative 
or  "  spiritual "  interpretation  of  the  Calvinists. 

Now  there  is  such  a  parallelism  and  relation  between  the 
change  of  the  man  himself  and  the  change  of  his  food  in  these  two 
Sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the  Eucharist,  and  such  an  identity 
in  the  three  forms  of  speech  used  by  the  Fathers  both  concerning 
the  one  and  concerning  the  other,  that  he  who  asserts  a  physical 
transubstantiation  or  change  of  man's  food  in  the  Eucharist,  and 
denies  two  forms  of  speech  out  of  the  three,  ought  in  consist- 
ency to  assert  a  like  physical  change  of  the  man  himself,  and 
deny  the  two  corresponding  forms  of  speech  out  of  the  three  in 
the  case  of  Baptism.  Or  if  any  one  does  not  say  that  the  change 
of  the  man  himself  in  Baptism  is  physical,  so  that  his  physical 
accidents  remain  miraculously  suspended,  and  inherent  in  no 
subject,  then  neither  shovild  he  say  that  the  change  of  man's 

p  2 


212  OF    TEANSUBSTANTIATION. 

food  in  the  Eucharist  is  physical^,  uor  that  the  physical  accidents 
of  the  bread  and  of  the  wiue  remain  miraculously  suspended, 
and  inherent  in  no  subject. 

]\Iany  perhaps  have  been  so  used  to  compare  only  the  sancti- 
fication  of  the  water  of  Baptism  with  the  sanctilication  of  the 
bread  and  wine  in  the  Eucharist,  that  they  will  not  readily  feel 
the  force  of  this  parallelism,  nor  see  that  in  a  certain  sense  the 
doctrine  of  the  Eucharist  is  capable  of  being  evolved  from  the 
doctrine  of  Baptism  by  virtue  of  that  correlation  which  exists 
between  the  life  or  living  creature  which  needs  food  and  the 
food  that  feeds  it.  This  therefore  may  need  some  fuller  state- 
ment or  illustration. 

Apart  from  any  question  of  religion,  we  see  by  common  sense 
and  reason  that  there  is  a  certain  necessary  relation  between  the 
nature  or  substance  of  all  creatures  which  are  said  to  be  born  or 
to  live  and  the  nature  or  substance  of  their  food  :  and  so  between 
the  thing,  name,  and  idea  of  generation  or  hirth  and  the  thing 
name  and  idea  of  food.  If  a  nature  needing  food  was  not  in 
living  creatures  which  are  born,  food  could  not  be.  That  in- 
deed which  is  now  food  might  exist  as  matter,  and  might  have 
some  name  in  the  speech  of  intellectual  beings,  but  food  it 
could  not  be  either  in  name  or  idea  :  and  if  on  the  other  hand 
food  were  not,  the  living  creature  whose  nature  needs  food  would 
be  born  only  to  die. 

Now  He  who  created  man  and  the  food  of  man  (that  is,  the 
natures  of  bread  and  flesh,  w^ine  and  water,  consubstantial  with 
man's  nature)  at  the  beginning,  when  He  came  to  restore 
His  ruined  creature  announced  a  new  thing  by  a  new  name, 
a  thing  which  we  of  ourselves  could  never  have  anticipated, 
and  which  we  can  never  comprehend,  the  "  new  birth  "  of  a 
man  that  is  already  born. 

To  natural  reason  this  was  either  a  mere  metaphor  and  figure 
of  speech,  or  a  contradiction  in  terms,  and  a  manifest  impossi- 
bility. And  so  Nicodemus  objected  "  How  can  a  man  be  born 
w^hen  he  is  old  ?  Can  he  enter  again  a  second  time  into  his 
mother's  womb,  and  be  born  ?"  But  Christ  answered  not  "  I 
speak  only  figuratively;"  but  with  a  double  asseveration  re- 
peated what  He  had  said,  "  Verily,  verihj ."  ("  In  very  truth,  in 
very  truth"  :)  and  then  only  added,  to  remove  misconception,  that 


OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 


213 


this  was  not  any  such  natural  or  carnal  birth  as  Nicodemus  un- 
derstood, but  a  supernatural,  heavenly,  and  spiritual  birth,  not 
of  flesh  but  of  spirit,  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  being  flesh, 
and  that  which  is  born  of  the  spirit  being  spirit,  so  that  the  two 
interfere  not  the  one  with  the  other. 

Now  if  Nicodemus  had  simply  accepted  this  announcement 
of  our  Saviour,  that   a  man  already  born  is   to  be  born  again, 
then  (without  any  knowledge  of  what  was  afterwards  to  be  said 
at  Capernaum,  or  to  be  instituted  at  Jerusalem,  and  practised 
and  taught  by  the  Church,)  it  would  have  been  possible  for  him, 
as  it  would  seem,  from  the  mere  force  of  the   terms  employed 
to  reason  thus :  Birth  looks  forward  to  food  :  the  man  that  is 
born,  flesh  of  flesh,  needs  to  be  fed  ;  and  if  not  fed  with  food 
consubstantial  with  himself,  he   dies.     If  then  there  is  a  new 
birth,  spirit  of  spirit,  that  birth  too  will  probably  require  and 
look  forward  to    a  new  food  consubstantial  with    the  new  or 
spiritual  creature  that  is  born.     If  the  man  that  is  born  is  him- 
self born  again,  and  so  changed  into  a  new  creature,  it  is  proba- 
ble that  his   food  also  will  itself  be  made  or  created  anew,  and 
so  changed  into  the  new  food  of  the  new  creature.     If  the  man 
himself  is  born  again  not  after  any  natural  or  fleshly  way  but  of 
the  spirit,  his  food  also  will  be  made  anew  into  the  new  food 
not  after  any  natural  or  fleshly  way  but  of  the  spirit.     If  the 
man  himself  passing  into  spirit  and  having  his  essence  changed, 
becoming  what  he  was  not  and  so  far  ceasing  to  be  what  he 
was,  is  still    man,  (that  "  spirit "    of  which  he  is  born  anew, 
though  distinguished  from  "  the  flesh,"  having  as  it  seems  in 
some  sense  the  nature  of  humanity,  and  being  to  them  that  are 
born  anew  as  a  second  Adam,)  then  the  food  of  man  also  passing 
into    the    new    food  which    is  spirit,  and    having    its  essence 
changed,  becoming  what   it  was  not   and  ceasing  so   far  to  be 
what  it  was,   will    still    be    consubstantial  with  the    spiritual 
humanity  of  the  new  man.     If  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is 
flesh  and  that  which  is  born  of  the  spirit  is  spirit,  and  yet  not  two 
men  are  named  as  united  after  the  new  birth  but  one  man,  then 
the  earthly  food  also  which  is  consubstantial  with  the  flesh  of 
the  first  Adam  will  be  distinct  from  the  spiritual  food  which  is 
consubstantial  with  the  new  man  who  is  spirit,  and  yet  not  two 
foods  will  be  named  as  united  after  the  change,  but  one  food. 


214  OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATIOiV. 

If  the  man  that  is  boi'u  anew  is  still  man,  but  in  a  higher  and 
transcendental  sense,  the  food  also  that  is  changed  will  still  be 
susceptible  of  its  former  name,  but  in  a  higher  and  transcen- 
dental sense  :  the  bread  will  have  become  bread  indeed,  and  the 
drink  drink  indeed. 

This  reasoning,  inferring  from  the  mere  force  of  the  term 
"  new  birth  "  another  analogous  and  dependent  mystery  of  a  new 
food,  justifies  also  by  anticipation  on  the  subject  of  the  new 
food  all  those  three  different  modes  of  speech  which  the  words 
of  Christ  Himself  to  Nicodemus  have  already  introduced  as 
appropriate  and  compatible  with  one  another  in  respect  of  the 
new  birth.  Tt  also  explains  in  what  sense  each  one  of  them  is 
true,  and  in  what  sense  each  one  of  them  is  false. 

For  in  the  case  of  the  new  birth  we  have  first  that  which 
is  the  object  of  faith  not  of  sense,  namely  that  which  being  born 
of  spirit  as  of  a  second  Adam  is  spirit ;  secondly  that  which  is 
the  object  of  sight  and  sense,  namely  the  man  that  is  already 
born,  the  flesh  born  of  the  flesh  of  the  first  Adam  ;  and  thirdhj 
the  union  of  these  two  in  one  and  the  same  subject :  for  it 
is  one  and  the  same  man  who  is  born  after  the  flesh  and  born 
again  j  who  is  changed  of  the  Spirit  into  a  new  creature,  and 
yet  remains  as  to  his  flesh  what  he  was  before.  In  speaking  of 
the  first  of  these  three  things  we  may  say  that  we  are  speaking 
'^  of  the  order  of  grace  "  which  is  supernatural,  "  not  according 
to  the  flesh  but  according  to  the  spirit :  "  in  speaking  of  the 
second  that  we  are  speaking  "  naturally,"  "  of  the  order  of  na- 
ture," or  "  according  to  the  flesh :"  in  speaking  of  the  third 
that  we  are  speaking  "  of  the  two  distinct  orders  of  nature  and 
grace  conjointly,"  according  to  the  ''  flesh  "  and  according  to 
the  "  spirit "  at  once.  If  we  speak  "  according  to  the  spirit  " 
we  shall  say  that  the  man  that  is  born  naturally  of  Adam's  flesh, 
inasmuch  as  he  is  not  said  to  be  united  to  some  other  person  or 
thing  but  is  himself  the  subject  of  the  new  birth,  is  necessarily 
changed,  and  changed  too  inwardly  and  essentially,  not  sensibly 
or  accidentally :  we  shall  say  that  the  old  man  is  abolished,  and 
done  away ;  that  he  has  passed  into  a  new  creature.  But  if 
anything  like  the  misconception  of  Nicodemus,  understanding 
after  the  flesh  what  is  said  after  the  spirit,  causes  us  to  look  back 
to  the  order  of  nature,  we  shall  say  that  '^  that  which  is  born  of 


OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION.  215 

the  flesh  is  flesh  ;"  and  that  though  changed  and  born  again 
spiritually  and  supcrnaturally,  yet  as  to  the  flesh  the  man  re- 
mains the  same  man  (substance  and  accidents)  as  before.  Or 
lastly,  speaking  of  both  orders  of  nature  and  grace  conjointly, 
we  may  say  that  since  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and 
that  which  is  born  of  the  spirit  is  spirit,  there  are  in  the  man 
that  is  born  anew  two  natures,  and  in  a  sense  two  men,  one 
from  the  first  Adam  natural,  earthly,  and  corruptible,  the  other 
from  the  second  Adam  supernatural,  heavenly,  and  incorruptible, 
the  "flesh  "  and  the  "  spirit :"  and  these  two  do  not  interfere 
the  one  with  the  other. 

In  the  same  manner  with  respect  to  that  new  food  which 
may  be  inferred  from  the  new  birth  we  shall  have  fast  the  food 
which  is  the  object  of  faith  not  sense,  which  is  spirit  consub- 
stantial  with  that  which  is  born  of  spirit,  or  with  the  spiritual 
humanity  of  the  second  Adam  :  secondly  the  food  which  is  the 
object  of  sight  and  sense  (bread,  it  may  be,  or  flesh)  consub- 
stantial  with  the  flesh  of  the  first  and  natural  Adam  :  and  thirdly 
the  union  of  these  two  in  one  and  the  same  subject :  for  it  is 
one  and  the  same  food  which  is  made  or  created  natural  food, 
consubstantial  with  the  flesh  of  Adam,  and  which  afterwards  is 
made  or  created  anew  of  the  spirit ;  which  is  changed  of  the 
spirit  into  a  new  substance  consubstantial  with  the  spiritual 
humanity  of  the  new  man,  and  yet  remains  after  the  flesh  what 
it  was  before.  If  we  speak  according  to  the  spirit  we  shall  say 
that  the  natural  food,  inasmuch  as  it  is  not  said  to  be  united  to 
some  other  thing  which  is  made  spirit  of  spirit,  but  is  said  to 
become  and  to  be  itself  the  new  food,  will  necessarily  be  changed  ; 
and  changed  too  inwardly  and  essentially,  not  outwardly  or  ac- 
cidentally. We  shall  say  that  the  natural  food  will  have  been 
done  away,  and  will  have  ceased  to  be,  that  it  will  have  passed  into 
a  new  thing.  But  if  any  misconception  (like  that  of  Nicodemus 
respecting  the  new  birth,)  causes  us  to  look  back  to  the  order  of 
nature,  to  that  which  is  after  the  flesh,  we  shall  say  that,  though 
changed  and  created  anew  spiritually  and  supernaturally,  yet 
according  to  the  flesh,  that  is,  according  to  the  order  of  nature, 
and  as  to  its  natural  substance,  the  food  remains  the  same  as  be- 
fore, and  has  by  no  means  undergone  any  physical  change ;  as  if 
bread  or  flesh  were  to  return  into  the  womb  of  their  being  and 


216  OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

to  be  naturally  made  anew  into  other  bread  or  flesh  either  abso- 
lutely or  at  least  as  to  their  substance.  Or  lastly,  speaking  of 
the  two  orders  of  nature  and  grace  conjointly,  we  may  say  that 
since  that  which  is  con  substantial  with  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and  that 
which  is  consubstantial  with  the  spirit  (or  with  the  new  and 
spiritual  humanity)  is  spirit,  there  are  in  the  food  that  has  been 
changed  two  things,  an  outward  and  an  inward,  and  in  a  certain 
sense  two  foods,  one  consubstantial  with  the  first  Adam,  natu- 
ral, earthly,  and  corruptible,  the  other  consubstantial  with  the 
second  Adam,  supernatural,  heavenly,  and  incorruptible,  the 
earthly  food  after  the  flesh  and  the  spiritual  food  after  the  spirit : 
and  these  two  will  not  interfere  the  one  with  the  other. 

We  shall  be  able  too  to  distinguish  and  anticipate  three  pos- 
sible misconceptions  and  erroneous  forms  of  speech  respecting 
the  new  food  corresponding  with  what  are  possible  respecting 
the  new  birth.  For  first,  a  man  may  look  to  the  order  of  na- 
ture or  of  the  flesh,  that  is,  to  sight  and  sense  only,  so  as  to 
deny  the  truth  of  Christ's  word,  and  the  existence  of  the 
hi"-her  order  of  grace  or  spirit :  and  in  this  case  he  will  say  with 
Nicodemus  "  How  can  a  man  be  born  again  V  and  (by  analogy) 
"  How  can  his  food  be  created  anew,  or  pass  into  other  natural 
bread  or  flesh  from  what  it  is  ?  These  things  cannot  be :  and  there- 
fore  they  can  only  be  said  figuratively  or  metaphorically.  The  man 
remains  unchanged,  and  his  food  remains  unchanged."  Secondly, 
thinkinf  of  the  distinction  between  that  which  is  born  of  the 
first  birth  and  that  which  is  born  of  the  new  birth,  and  between 
the  old  or  ordinary  and  the  new  food,  and  yet  seeing  that  the  old 
and  the  new  man,  the  ordinary  and  the  new  food,  are  respectively 
united  in  one  and  the  same  subject,  he  may  so  misconceive  of 
this  union  as  to  make  it  a  physical  union  in  each  case,  by  inhe- 
rence or  consubstantiation,  a  union  of  two  natural  substances 
under  one  and  the  same  order  instead  of  a  union  of  two  distinct 
orders  in  one  subject.  So  he  may  think  that  there  must  be  two 
men,  two  personahties,  joined  or  compounded  together  under 
one  appearance,  denying  that  the  natural  man  is  (after  the  order 
of  the  spirit)  really  changed  into,  and  becomes,  and  is  a  new 
man.  And  in  like  manner  he  may  think  that  there  must  be 
some  new  food  created  and  added  to  the  natural  food,  and  that 
these  two  foods  are  physically  joined  or  compounded  together 


OF    TRANSUBSTAXTIATION.  217 

in,  with,  and  imder  one  appearance,  denying  that  the  natural 
food  is  changed,  and  passes  into,  and  becomes,  and  is  (after  the 
order  of  the  spirit)  the  new  food,  and  that  numerically  there  arc 
not  two  foods  but  one  food.  Or  thirdhj,  a  man  may  so  miscon- 
ceive while  looking  to  the  supernatural  order  alone,  as  to  thnik 
that  the  supervention  of  that  which  being  born  of  spirit  is  spirit 
interferes  physically  with  the  continuance  of  that  which  having 
been  born  of  the  tlesh  is  flesh  :  and  that  the  supervention  of  the 
food  consubstantial  with  the  new  man  interferes  physically  with 
the  continuance  of  the  natural  food.  And  in  this  case  he  will 
say  that  the  man  that  is  born  again  has  even  physically,  or  after 
the  flesh,  ceased  to  exist ;  and  that  either  absolutely  (both  sub- 
stance and  accidents,)  or  if  not  so,  yet  at  least  as  to  his  natural 
substance,  the  accidents  of  which  remain  suspended  and  in- 
herent in  no  subject.  And  in  like  manner  he  will  say  that  the 
food  that  is  created  anew  has  even  physically,  or  after  the  flesh, 
ceased  to  exist,  and  that  if  not  as  to  its  accidents,  yet  at  least  as 
to  its  natural  substance,  the  accidents  of  which  remain  suspended 
and  inherent  in  no  subject. 

The  propriety  of  the  three  different  forms  of  speech  which 
may  be  justified  from  our  Lord's  words  to  Nicodemus  con- 
cerning the  new  birth,  and  by  analogy  also  concerning  the  new 
food,  will  be  seen  to  consist  in  the  preservation  of  the  due  dis- 
tinction between  the  two  orders  of  grace  and  nature,  of  the 
spirit  and  of  the  flesh,  so  that  the  one  is  neither  confounded  with 
the  other  nor  denied  because  of  the  other.  And  the  same  three 
forms  of  language  will  be  perceived  to  become  each  of  them 
erroneous,  so  far  as  the  contrary  is  the  case  :  as  when  an  ab- 
sence of  change  which  belongs  only  to  the  order  of  nature  is  in- 
sisted upon  so  as  to  exclude  the  change  which  belongs  only  to 
the  order  of  grace  :  or  secondly  when  a  union  of  two  things  which 
may  be  assei'ted  with  truth  only  in  respect  of  the  two  distinct 
orders  conjoined  is  asserted  in  respect  of  one  order  alone,  so  as 
to  subvert  the  numerical  unity  and  identity  of  the  man  or  of 
the  food,  and  that  change  of  each  which  is  according  to  the 
spirit :  or  lastly  when  a  change  which  belongs  only  to  the  order 
of  spirit  is  insisted  upon  so  as  to  subvert  or  exclude  the  order  of 
nature.  And  of  these  three  errors  the  first  will  directly  subvert 
faith,   and  faith  only;  the   last,  physical  truth,  and  physical 


21S  OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

truth  only ;  while  the  second  will  subvert;  but  indirectly,  both 
physical  truth  and  faith. 

That  use  which  has  been  made  above  of  the  word  "  spirit  " 
as  distinguished  from  "  flesh,"  and  the  contrast  of  what  has 
been  called  the  supernatural  order,  the  order  of  grace,  or  spirit, 
to  the  order  of  nature,  or  of  the  flesh,  and  of  the  heavenly  to  the 
earthly,  are  clearly  enough  taught  us  by  Holy  Scripture.  Of 
the  new  birth  it  is  said  "  That  which  is  born  of  the  jlesh  is  flesh, 
and  that  which  is  born  of  the  spirit  is  spirit  J"  And  of  the  new 
food  it  might  be  anticipated  even  by  analogy  that  it  would  be 
said  "  It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth  :  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing  J' 
But  yet  this  "spirit""  which  both  in  the  new  birth  and  the  new 
food  is  thus  opposed  to  the  "flesh  "  contains  in  some  sense  (as 
has  already  been  inferred  above,)  the  human  nature,  a  new 
human  nature,  identical  with  the  old  and  yet  new.  For  it  is 
not  any  pure  spirit,  as  the  nature  of  angels,  nor  the  incommu- 
nicable Divine  essence,  but  something  from  which  that  which 
is  born  is  still  called  "  man,"  something  which  is  to  all  those 
who  are  born  anew  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  a  second  Adam, 
answering  to  the  first  Adam  the  father  of  all  those  who  are 
born  into  the  world.  And  subsequently  to  the  time  when 
Christ  spoke  with  Nicodemus  this  has  been  explained  to  all, 
that  as  the  first  Adam  (the  unbegotten  source  of  future  natural 
generations  after  the  flesh,)  was  made  a  living  soul,  so  there  is  a 
second  Adam  (the  unregenerated  source  of  all  future  regenera- 
tions after  the  spirit,)  who  is  a  quickening  Spirit :  that  as  the 
first  man  is  of  the  earth  earthy,  so  there  is  a  second  man  who 
is  the  Lord  from  heaven  :  and  that  the  Lord  is  that  Spirit. 
And  Christ  said  by  implication  at  least  even  to  Nicodemus, 
that  He  is  Himself  the  life  of  them  that  are  born  again,  and  by 
consequence  also  the  food  of  their  new  life.  So  that  the 
"  spirit  "  which  is  contradistinguished  from  the  "  flesh  "  in  the 
new  birth  and  in  the  new  food  is  Christ  Himself,  the  Sou  of 
Man  who  came  down  from  heaven  and  yet  remained  in  heaven, 
who  came  down  and  was  lifted  up  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent 
in  the  wilderness,  and  ascended  up  again  visibly  where  He  was 
before ;  the  Word  incarnate,  God  made  communicable  to  man 
through  the  assumption  of  man's  nature,  God  made  flesh,  God 
and  man  in  one  person,  called   "  spirit "   as  contrasted   with 


OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION.  219 

"flesh"  from  the  superiority  of  His  higher  nature  and  of  His 
incorruptible  and  spiritualized  humanity,  yet  communicating 
himself  to  that  "  tlesh "  with  which  He  is  contrasted  as 
"  spirit "  through  His  own  flesh  which  He  had  assumed  from 
it:  For  otherwise  He  would  have  remained  incommunicable. 

So  then  although  that  which  being  born  of  the  spirit  is 
spirit  is  opposed  to  that  which  being  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh, 
still,  to  be  born  again  of  the  spirit  will  be  to  be  transformed 
into  Christ  the  second  Adam,  to  be  engrafted  or  incorporated 
into  Him  through  His  humanity  (by  the  operation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,)  to  put  Him  on,  to  be  clothed  with  Him,  to  live  with 
His  life,  to  become  a  member  of  His  Body,  of  His  bones  and  of 
His  flesh.  The  word  "  spirit "  therefore  in  the  new  birth  is 
not  opposed  to  all  flesh,  but  is  identical  with  the  flesh  of 
Christ.  And  to  be  fed  after  the  new  birth  with  that  new 
food  which  is  spirit  and  life,  and  which  is  opposed  to  "  the 
flesh  which  profiteth  nothing,"  will  be  to  be  fed  with  the 
eternal  Bread  of  Life  through  the  Incarnation,  that  is,  with  the 
flesh  and  blood  of  that  sacrifice  which  shall  have  been  ofl'ered 
for  us,  with  that  Flesh  which  is  meat  indeed,  and  with  that 
Blood  which  is  drink  indeed,  in  which  alone  is  the  communica- 
ble and  true  life.  The  word  "  spirit  "  therefore  in  the  new  food 
also  will  not  be  opposed  to  all  flesh,  but  is  identical  with  the 
flesh  of  Christ. 

The  supposition  that  such  inferences  as  these  might  have  been 
in  themselves  possible  even  for  one  versed  only  in  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  like  Nicodemus  may  be  justified  perhaps  by  those 
words  of  our  Saviour,  "  Art  thou  a  master  in  Israel,  and 
knowest  not  these  things  P"  And  if  so,  and  if  the  inferences 
are  in  themselves  legitimate,  it  is  unnecessary  to  use  many 
words  to  point  out  how  they  are  illustrated  and  confirmed  by 
what  was  subsequently  said  at  Capernaum  concerning  the 
spiritual  or  heavenly  "  Bread  of  God"  and  the  "spirit"  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  "  meat  that  perisheth,"  and  from  the 
"flesh  that  profiteth  nothing;"  by  the  actual  institution  of  both 
the  Sacraments  of  the  New  Birth  and  the  New  Food ;  by  the 
selection  of  the  natural  food  of  man,  bread  and  wine,  to  become 
the  spiritual  food ;  by  the  continued  use  of  both  these  Sacra- 
ments in  the  Church  for  the  beginning  and  the  continuance  of 


220  OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

spiritual  life  from  the  Day  of  Pentecost  to  the  present  clay;  by 
the  occurrence  in  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  of  all  those  three 
modes  of  speech  respecting  each  of  these  two  Mysteries  which 
have  been  shown  on  grounds  of  antecedent  propriety  to  be 
admissible  ;  by  the  existence  either  in  reference  to  the  new  birth 
or  to  the  new  food,  or  to  both,  of  all  those  three  corresponding 
errors  which  have  been  shown  to  be  possible ;  and  by  the  close 
parallelism  which  in  all  these  respects  is  noticeable  between  the 
two  Sacraments,  corresponding  to  that  antecedent  correlative- 
ness  which  exists  between  the  living  creature  itself  that  is  born 
and  the  food  that  is  made  to  sustain  its  life. 

But  as  some  can  believe  nothing  to  be  real  which  is  called 
"  i!piritual,"  \\\\\\q  toothers  it  may  still  seem  paradoxical  first 
to  name  the  new  life  and  the  new  food  "  spirit,^'  opposing  them 
to  ''  flesh,"  and  then  to  interpret  this  spirit  itself  to  be  flesh, 
and  flesh  too  literally  assumed  from  our  own,  it  may  be  well  to 
add  something  to  show  more  clearly  the  transcendant  reality  of 
these  mysteries,  the  words  for  expressing  which,  though  irre- 
concilable to  carnal  reason,  (for  we  certainly  cannot  comprehend 
how  one  thing  is  changed  into  another  and  yet  remains  what  it 
was  before,  nor  how  the  natural  flesh  which  is  contrasted  with 
spirit  and  the  spirit  which  yet  is  flesh  are  one  in  Christ,)  have 
not  been  invented  by  man,  but  have  been  given  to  us  from  the 
mouth  of  Christ  Himself  and  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Now  we  know  that  the  outer  world  was  made  with  such  a 
correspondence  to  man's  nature  and  senses,  and  both  the  world 
and  man  himself  with  such  a  correspondence  to  the  attributes 
of  the  Creator,  as  to  make  it  possible  for  man  through  ideas 
obtained  from  the  outer  world  to  rise  to  a  perception  of  spiritual 
and  heavenly  things  :  which  could  not  have  been  unless  God 
had  placed  a  certain  likeness  and  analogy  between  spiritual  or 
heavenly  things  and  the  things  of  the  natural  creation.  And 
wherever  there  is  imitation  the  picture  or  likeness  is  of  course 
for  the  sake  of  the  original,  not  the  original  for  the  sake  of  the 
picture  :  and  if  they  are  both  called  by  the  same  name,  it  is  not 
the  picture  but  the  original  to  which  the  name  in  strictness  be- 
longs. And  though  the  picture  in  itself  may  be  called  a  reality  as 
distinguished  from  the  mere  perception  or  immediate  idea  which 
it  excites  in   our  eye  or  mind,  and  even  as  distinguished  from 


OF    TRANSUDSTANTIATION. 


221 


any  remoter  idea  of  an  original  otherwise  unknown  to  us  which 
it  may  suggest,  still  if  the  picture  be  compared  not  with   any 
mere  idea  immediately  or  remotely  excited  in  us,  but  with  the 
original  itself,  then,  in  like  manner  as  the  picture  is  said  to  be  a 
real  thing  as  distinguished  from  any  impression,  likeness,  idea, 
or  notion  derived  from  it,  so  the  original  from  which  the  picture 
has  been  taken  must  be  said  to  be  a  reality  rather  than  the 
picture  itself.     Thus,   for  instance,  if  the  sun  in  the   material 
heavens,  inaccessible  itself  to  the  eye,  but  emitting  light,   and 
heat  through  and  in  the  light,  to  enlighten  and  vivify  all  things, 
has  been  made  purposely  to  be  an  image,  its  original  must  be 
the  truer  sun.     We  know  too  that  wherever  there  is  method, 
growth,  and  system,  the  beginning  is  for  the  sake  of  the  end,  the 
former  things  for  the  latter,  the  lower  for  the  higher,  the  lesser 
for  the  greater,  the  part  for  the  whole,  the   imperfect  for  the 
perfect,  the  preparatory  or  the  instrumental  for  the   complete 
and  abiding.     The  seed  and  the  bud  are  for  the  flower  and  the 
fruit.     The  elements  and   the  lower  creatures  are  for  the  sake 
of  man :  the  child  for  the  sake  of  the  grown  man  :  the  indivi- 
dual man  for  the  sake  of  the  city  or  community  :  the  creature 
itself  for  the  sake  of  the  Creator.     And  that  which  is  last  in 
execution  is  first  in  idea,  and  when  realized  in  fact  is  more  real 
than  any  thing  which   may  have  been  for  its  sake.     And  if  in 
any  case  the  same  name  belongs  to  that  which  is  subordinate 
and  inchoate  as  to  that  which  is  final  and  perfect,  it   belongs 
most  properly  and  strictly,  originally,  and  finally,  to   the  latter, 
but  to   the  former  only  for  the  sake  of  and  in  respect   of  the 
latter.     Thus  the  name  of  "  man  "  or  humanity  may  belong  also 
to  the  child  or  to  the  woman,  but  most  strictly  and  properly  it 
belongs  to  the  man. 

These  two  principles  being  borne  in  mind,  we  may  see  that  if  it 
was  in  the  Divine  counsels  that  the  Word,  the  consubstantial  Ray 
of  the  true  Sun,  should  assume  to  Himself  a  body  from  the  dust, 
and  not  directly  from  the  dust  but  from  a  creature  made  a  little 
lower  than  the  angels,  in  order  to  combat  in  a  manner  worthy  of 
God  the  pride  and  rebellion  of  Satan,  it  follows  that  the  elements, 
and  the  dust  itself,  and  the  human  creature  made  from  the 
dust,  must  have  been  from  the  beginning  created  and  prepared 
in  subordination  to  that  Divine  purpose.    And  so  the  Word  In- 


222  or    TRANSUHSTANTIATION. 

carnatc  must  be  the  true  and  prototypal  Adam,  from  whence  the 
subordinate  and  preparatory,  that  is,  the  natural  Adam  had  both 
his  nature   and  his  name.     And  if  there  was  to  be  any  gradual 
process  of  change    and  growth   and  improvement  in  humanity 
itself,  (like  the  change  from   childhood  to  manhood  in  the  indi- 
vidual,) that   is  to  say,   from  the  humanity  of  Adam,  whether 
before  or  after  the  fall,  and  of  his  natural   posterity,  to  that  of 
Christ  the  second  Adam,  in  Whom  that  nature  is  restored  and 
united  (in  a  far  higher  sense  than   before  the  fall)  to  God  ;  and 
again  from  the  humanity  of  Christ  Himself  as  it  was  "  in  the 
days  of  His  flesh,''  suffering  and  dishonoured,  and  like  in  all 
things  to  that  of  sinful  and  mortal  men,  sin  only  excepted,  to 
the  same  humanity  glorified,  spiritualized,  and  deified,  (without 
however  being  absorbed,  or  ceasing  truly  to  exist,)  then  hence 
also  it  follows  that  the  truest,  most  real,  and  prototypal  man  is 
Christ,  and  Christ  as  glorified,  when  His  human  nature  has 
attained  its  perfect  and  permanent  state.     And  this  being   so, 
His  Body  was  not  less  but  rather  more  truly  and  properly  a 
human  body  when  it  was  so  subUmated  after  the  resurrection 
that  it  seemed  gifted  with  the  properties  of  spirit,  appearing  and 
disappearing,  showing  itself  in  different  aspects,  passing  through 
unopened  doors,  living  with  an  open  w^ound  pierced  through  the 
side  to  the  heart,  and  ascending  visibly  in  the  clouds  of  heaven. 
And  again,  after  His  ascension  to  the  Father,  Christ's   Body 
in  its  glorified  state,  His  Flesh  and  His  Blood,  is  not  a  modifica- 
tion, a  qualification,  an  absorption  (as  the  Monophysites  blas- 
pheme,) of  the  humanity  of  the  first  Adam  :  but  the  humanity 
of  the  first  Adam,  and  Christ's  own  body  "after  the  flesh"  in 
its  state  of  change  and  humiliation  on  earth,  were  rather  begin- 
nings, preparations,  advances,  towards  Christ's  glorified  Body. 
The  first  Adam  was  made  and  named  with  a  view  to  this,  and 
for  the  sake  of  this,  and  from  this,  not  this  from  the  first  Adam. 
Again,  to  reason  from  the  relation  of  symbols  and  pictures  to 
the  greater  reality  of  things   signified   or  represented :  Almost 
every  thing  that  was  made  or  written  of  the  visible  creation,  and 
under  the  older  and  less  perfect  dispensations,  besides   being 
preparatory  and  instrumentally  subordinate,  was  also  significa- 
tive and  symbolical  of  something  answering  to  it  in  a  future  and 
spiritual  creation,  into  which  the  first  was  to  pass.     For  as  men 


OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATTON.  223 

paint  with  colours,  to  give  an  idea  of  things  in  strange  countries, 
so  God  paints  with  things   and  persons  and  events,  to  give  to 
His  children  notions  of  heavenly  and  supernatural  things.    And 
to  say  nothing  of  the  preceding  stages  of  creation,  when  Adam 
was  created  from  the  virgin  earth,  not  begotten  like  other  men 
his  posterity,  nor  produced,  one  of  many,  from  the  earth  like 
the  lower  animals,  but  fashioned  by  God  Himself,  single  and 
alone,  to  be  the  sole  source  and  father  of  the  human  race,  this 
was  to  symbolize  the  birth  of  a  second,  the  true  Adam,  from  the 
Virgin,  to  be  the  father  of  the  w^orld  to  come.    When  God,  Who 
could  have  made  plants  and  animals  and  men  without  sex  or 
generation,  made  man  male  and  female,  and  united  them  in  mar- 
riage, this  was  to   subserve,  and  also  to   symbolize,  a  mystery 
connected  with  the  Incarnation.     When  He  who  could  have 
made  the  w^oman  directly  from  the  ground  as  easily  as  He  had 
made  the  man  caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall  upon  Adam,  and  took 
one  of  his  ribs,  and  made  thereof  a  woman,  and  brought  her 
unto  the  man ;  and  Adam  said,  This  is  now  bone  of  my  bone 
and  ilesh  of  my  liesh ;  she  shall  be  called  woman  because  she 
was  taken  out  of  man  :  this  was  done  to  symbolize  the  forma- 
tion of  another  Eve  from  the  side  of  the  second  Adam.     For 
Christ  also  slept  a  deep  sleep  on  the  Cross,   and  His  side  was 
pierced,  and  there  came  out  blood  and  water,   two   sacraments 
for  the  formation  of  the  Church,  which  is   His  Body  and  His 
Spouse.     When  God  Who  could  have  multiplied  mankind  in 
other  ways  willed  that  they  should  have  the  beginning  of  life 
from  a  single  pair  by  generation  and  "  birth,''  this  was  to  sub- 
serve and  symbolize  a  higher  and  truer  birth  of  heavenly  and 
incorruptible  seed,  which  thus  became  intelligible,  and  capable  of 
being  named  by  us.     When  the  Giver  of  life,  AVho  could  have 
maintained  in  His  creatures  the  life  begun  by   birth  in  some 
other  way,  willed  that  their  life  should  need  the  sustenance  of 
food,  and  created  and  named  certain  kinds  of  food  to  be  correla- 
tive to  the  life  of  that  which  is  born,  this  was  to  subserve  and 
symbolize  a  higher  and  truer  food,  which  thus  became  intelli- 
gible, and  capable  of  being  named  by  us.     If  man  had  not  been 
made  to  live  by  food,  the  words  food  and  bread  could  not  have 
existed :  nor  could  the  knowledge  have  been  conveyed  as  now 
to  man,  that  the  spiritual  essences  of  God's  creation  live  by  some 


224  OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

mysterious  communication  of  nourishment  from  the  Divine 
Word  as  in  this  natural  world  men  and  animals  and  plants  are 
naturally  fed  to  the  support  of  their  natural  life.  But  man 
being  made  to  live  by  bread  and  water  and  wine  could  so  under- 
stand by  likeness  or  analogy  the  truth  that  the  Eternal  Word  is 
both  the  bread  of  angels,  and  also  his  own  "  spiritual  bread," 
his  "  water  of  hfe."  If  after  the  fall  sacrifice  of  innocent  and 
clean  beasts  was  instituted,  this  in  all  its  circumstances  and 
varieties  was  to  foreshadow,  prepare  for,  and  render  intelligible, 
the  one  true  and  sufficient  sacrifice  foreordained  for  sins.  If  the 
sacrificers  were  clothed  by  God  with  the  skins  of  the  victims, 
this  was  to  signify  the  spiritual  putting  on  of  the  fleece  of  the 
Lamb  of  God,  that  is,  of  the  righteousness  of  the  promised 
Redeemer.  If  not  bread  only,  as  before,  but  the  flesh  also  of 
creatures  ofi'ered  in  sacrifice  was  now  to  be  eaten  by  man,  and 
joined  with  bread,  this  was  to  signify  that  man  alienated  from 
God  could  never  eat  the  spiritual  bread  till  He  who  is  the 
"quickening  Spirit"  and  also  tlie  "  Living  Bread  "  should  come 
down  from  heaven  and  be  made  flesh,  and  having  been  sacrificed 
for  us  should  give  to  as  many  as  have  been  born  again  the  flesh 
of  His  sacrifice  to  be  the  sustenance  of  their  new  life.  If  the 
blood  of  the  first  sacrifices,  in  which  was  the  life  of  the  victims, 
was  not  to  be  drunk  but  poured  on  the  ground,  this  was  to 
show  that  man  subject  to  death  for  his  own  sin  could  be  pro- 
fited neither  by  the  death  nor  by  the  life  of  other  creatures ; 
and  that  the  eating  of  the  flesh  of  those  sacrifices  was  only  a 
figure,  and  imperfect,  looking  forward  to  another  and  truer 
sacrifice,  in  w^hich  bread  and  flesh  should  be  one  thing,  and  from 
which  not  only  the  flesh  should  be  eaten  but  also  the  blood  in 
which  is  life,  and  communicable  life,  should  be  drunk  by  those 
for  whom  the  sacrifice  should  be  ofi'ered. 

And  so,  if  all  these  things  in  the  first  natural  and  transient 
creation  were  not  only  rudiments,  preparatory  and  subordinate, 
but  also  types  and  symbols  of  other  archetypal  things  answering 
to  them  in  the  new  or  spiritual  and  supernatural  creation  of 
Christ  the  second  Adam  and  His  Church,  it  follows,  as  has 
been  said  above,  (and  that  for  the  double  reason  both  of  their 
being  subordinate,  and  also  of  their  being  symbolical,)  that  the 
things  of  the  first   creation,  of  the  order  of  nature,  or  of  the 


OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION.  225 

flesh,  are  less  realities  (if  there  can  be  degrees  of  reality,)  than 
the  things  of  the  new  creation,  or  of  the  order  of  grace  and  spirit. 
The  formation  of  the  second  Adam  by  God  Himself,  the  forma- 
tion of  the  second  Eve,  the  Church,  from  the  side  of  the  second 
Adam,  the  prototypal  sacrifice,  the  new  birth  by  the  change  of  the 
old  creature  into  the  new,  the  bread  from  heaven  by  the  change 
of  the  natural  food  into  that  which  is  food  indeed,  the  eating 
the  flesh  and  drinking  the  blood  of  the  prototypal  sacrifice,  the 
participation  of  the  very  substance  of  the  second  Adam,  are  as 
much  higher  and  truer  realities  than  those  things  in  the  old  cre- 
ation which  prepared  for  them  and  symbolized  them,  as  the  grown 
man  is  more  properly  a  man  than  an  infant  or  an  embryo,  or  than 
a  picture  which  is  called  by  his  name.  If  we  are  forced  to  make 
distinctions  and  degrees  of  reality,  then  certainly  the  things  of 
the  natural  oi'der,  of  the  flesh,  are  the  unrealities  and  the  sha- 
dows rather  than  the  things  of  the  spirit. 

Yet  the  things  of  the  natural  order,  rudimentary  and  symboli- 
cal as  they  are,  are  so  real  that  it  is  from  them  we  have  our 
only  ideas  of  solidity  and  reality.  We  have  no  doubt  that  Adam 
really  existed,  and  that  Eve  was  really  formed  from  his  side : 
We  have  no  doubt  tliat  bread,  and  flesh,  and  wine,  and  water, 
are  real  things,  consubstantial  with  the  nature  of  Adam,  and 
rightly  called  food  capable  of  sustaining  life  :  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  children  of  Adam  and  Eve  really  offered  real  sacrifices, 
and  really  were  clothed  v»?ith  the  skins  of  those  sacrifices,  and 
really  ate  of  their  flesh  with  bread :  We  ourselves  do  not  doubt, 
any  one  of  us,  of  our  own  existence  :  we  have  most  certainlij  been 
born  naturally  of  Adam^s  real  flesh  and  blood,  children  of  wrath, 
and  inheritors  of  death  :  there  is  no  doubt  that  we  have  been 
born  ;  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  we  shall  die  :  these  things  are 
realities  and  certainties  if  any  things  are  :  We  admit  too  that 
the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  is  a  reality,  and  no  mere 
figure :  that  He  who  is  spirit  was  made  flesh  of  our  natural 
flesh,  and  united  in  one  person  the  two  orders  of  the  spirit  and 
the  flesh,  the  supernatural  and  the  natural,  without  prejudice  to 
the  unity  of  His  person ;  being  born,  and  living,  and  being  fed 
with  our  natural  food :  We  admit  that  His  sacrifice  of  Himself 
upon  the  Cross,  His  death,  and  resurrection,  and  ascension, 
and  the  glorification  of  His  human  nature,  so  as  to  be  no  longer 

Q 


226  OF    TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

a  natural  body  as  in  the  days  of  His  flesh,  but  a  spiritual  body, 
are  all  realities.  But  if  by  a  true  and  real  participation  of  Adam's 
nature  we  are  truly  liable  to  death,  we  must  also  have  a  true 
and  real  participation  of  the  substance  of  Christ  the  second 
Adam,  if  we  are  truly  to  live  again.  Else,  if  we  partake  of 
Christ  only  in  a  figure,  we  shall  live  again  only  in  a  figure. 
But  flesh  and  blood,  the  Apostle  declares,  cannot  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God  :  neither  doth  corruption  inherit  incorruption. 
There  is  a  natural  body,  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body.  And  so  it 
is  written.  The  first  man  Adam  was  made  a  living  soul ;  the  last 
Adam  is  a  quickening  spirit.  Howbeit  that  was  not  first  which 
is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natural,  and  afterward  that  which 
is  spiritual.  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy ;  the  second 
man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven.  As  is  the  earthy,  such  are  they 
also  that  are  earthy;  and  as  is  the  heavenly,  such  are  they  also 
that  are  heavenly.  For  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh, 
and  that  which  is  born  of  the  spirit  is  spirit.  And  as  we  have 
borne  the  image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of 
the  heavenly.  This  participation  then  of  the  substance  of  Christ 
the  second  Adam  by  our  regeneration  in  Baptism,  and  by  our 
nourishment  afterwards  through  the  transmutation  of  our  natural 
food  of  bread  and  wine  into  His  body  and  blood  in  the  Eucha- 
rist, is  to  us,  and  ought  ever  to  be  considered  and  spoken  of  by 
us,  as  the  greatest  of  all  realities.  And  the  transmutation  of  the 
bread  and  wine  is  no  more  made  to  be  less  real  by  the  continu- 
ance "  after  the  flesh ''  of  the  bread  and  wine,  than  is  our  own 
transmutation  and  new  birth  less  real  because  it  is  not  according 
to  the  flesh  but  according  to  the  spirit ;  or  because  we  remain 
after  our  natural  substance  what  we  were  before. 


DISSERTATION   XV. 

OF    THE    NECESSITY    OF    CONFESSION    TO    A    PRIEST. 

Another  error  or  corruption  imputed  by  Protestants  and  by  An- 
glicans to  the  Eastern  Church  is  this^  that,  like  the  Roman,  she 
requires  all  her  members,  from  the  age  of  discretion,  to  confess 
their  sins  to  a  Priest  at  the  least  once  a  year.  It  is  said,  and 
with  truth,  that  in  the  first  ages  of  Christianity  there  was  no 
such  obligation. 

Grounding  themselves  upon  this  view  of  antiquity,  the  Pro- 
testants and  the  Anglicans  have  either  abolished  the  Confession 
of  secret  sins  altogether,  or  have  made  it  optional :  and  they 
tacitly  assume  that  that  state  of  things  which  in  the  present  day 
results  as  a  necessary  consequence  from  their  abolition  of  the 
law  of  Confession  is  agreeable  to  antiquity  and  to  the  Gospel. 

But  the  truth  is  directly  the  reverse.  The  existing  tradition 
and  practice  among  Anglicans  and  Protestants  with  regard  to 
the  participation  of  the  Holy  Communion  is  manifestly  much 
more  xmlike  what  prevailed  in  the  primitive  Church  than  is  the 
existing  tradition  and  practice  among  the  Roman-Catholics  and 
the  Easterns.  So  that  if  antiquity  is  to  be  followed,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  reproduce  antiquity  exactly,  but  we  must  choose 
between  the  so-called  corruption  and  the  so-called  reformation, 
every  serious  person  ought  at  once  to  submit  to  the  discipline 
of  the  Romans  and  the  Greeks  as  being  the  nearer  approach 
to  antiquity  of  the  two. 

For  among  the  Anglicans  (to  say  nothing  of  those  Protestants 
who  are  mere  sectaries,)  the  Church  exists  as  a  visible  society 
only  thus  far,  that  there  is  an  outward  form  of  admission,  namely 
Baptism,)  which  is  administered  to  those  who  are  first  allowed 
and  approved,  and  pledged  to  renounce  certain  things  and  to 

Q  2 


228        or    THE    NECESSITY    OF    CONFESSION    TO    A    PRIEST. 

do  certain  other  things  for  the  future.  But  beyond  this  the 
Church  with  them  cannot  be  said  to  be  in  strictness  a  society. 
For  the  participation  of  the  Eucharist  being  the  badge  of  mem- 
bership^ this  is  given  indiscriminately  and  without  question  to 
all  who  approach  to  take  it :  not  only  to  regularly  admitted 
members,  who  continue  to  believe  a  certain  prescribed  faith  and 
to  avoid  certain  sins,  but  also  to  multitudes  who  either  indivi- 
dually or  in  the  mass  are  known  to  be  destitute  of  those  quali- 
fications j  to  many  who  have  never  been  admitted  at  all,  and 
who  so  are  not  even  fallen  members,  who  are  professed  followers 
of  other  creeds  or  denominations,  who  perhaps  have  not  even 
been  Baptized.  So  the  Church  is  like  a  house  without  doors, 
or  like  a  field  uninclosed,  into  which  every  thing  that  moves 
can  enter,  and  go  in  and  out,  and  feed  itself  without  hindrance. 
This  passivity  of  Communion  it  is  which  is  now  defended  from 
the  Gospel  and  from  the  primitive  Church,  because  the  primi- 
tive Church  had  not  as  yet  imposed  a  law  of  annual  Confession, 
or  of  Confession  at  all,  as  a  preparation  for  Communion. 

But  in  primitive  times  from  various  causes  those  who  had 
not  the  right  to  Communicate  dared  not  attempt  to  join  them- 
selves to  the  Church.  Judgments  such  as  fell  on  Ananias  and 
Sapphira,  together  wath  the  severities  of  public  penance  imposed 
on  all  who  were  known  to  have  lapsed,  made  them  that  had 
lapsed  secretly  feel  that  they  could  not  restore  themselves,  and 
led  them  voluntarily  to  confess  their  sins,  and  to  seek  to  have 
penance  imposed  for  them.  So  there  was  no  need  then  that  the 
Church  should  either  suspect  any  large  proportion  of  her  mem- 
bers of  having  secretly  lapsed,  or  require  all  to  do  what  only  a 
few  needed,  and  what  they  who  needed  it,  when  repentant,  were 
upon  the  whole  forward  to  do  of  themselves. 

But  when  with  the  Roman  Empire  the  w^orld  had  entered  into 
the  Church,  and  the  general  standard  of  religion  among  Chris- 
tians had  come  to  be  much  lower,  and  Communion  much  less 
frequent,  so  that  there  was  danger  that  very  many  of  those  that 
would  seek  to  make  their  Easter  Communion  might  have  fallen 
into  excommunicable  sins,  it  w^as  necessary  for  the  Church 
either  tacitly  to  allow  the  principle  that  such  sinners  may  rightly 
be  left  to  judge  of  their  own  penitence,  and  to  take  to  them- 
selves the  pardon  of  God,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  outward 


OF    THE    NECESSITY    OF    CONFESSION    TO   A    PRIEST.       229 

SacramentSj  by  an  inward  act  of  their  own  minds,  or  else  to  call 
all  before  her,  and  ascertain  by  questioning  whether  each  one  had 
not  fallen,  and  in  the  case  of  as  many  as  had  fallen  whether 
there  was  in  her  judgment  sufficient  penitence  to  justify  her  in 
absolving  them  and  admitting  them  to  the  Holy  Communion. 
This  latter  alternative  is  that  which  was  adopted.  And  so  the 
growth  of  the  custom  of  Confessing  to  a  Priest  as  a  preparation 
for  Communion,  and  afterwards  the  enforcement  of  the  same, 
was  not  any  mere  addition  or  innovation  :  but  it  was  a  repara- 
tion, compensation,  or  equivalent,  added  at  one  point  of  the 
Ecclesiastical  system  to  make  up  for  what  was  being  lost  at 
another,  and  to  preserve  as  far  as  possible  under  the  change  of 
circumstances  the  essential  proportions  of  the  whole. 

That  essential  doctrine  in  which  the  ancient  and  the  modern 
Church  is  one,  and  in  which  it  differs  from  all  Protestant  and 
Reformed  communities,  is  this,  that  the  Church  and  the  Sacra- 
ments of  the  Church  are,  like  man  himself,  compounded  of  body 
and  spirit ;  and  that  the  body  of  them,  though  inferior  and  for 
the  sake  of  the  spirit,  is  yet  so  necessary  that  it  is  made  by  God 
to  be  the  instrument  and  channel  of  His  gifts ;  so  that  except 
through  their  outward  parts  we  can  neither  possess  ordinarily, 
nor  even  conceive  or  name  the  distinctions  and  relations  of  spi- 
ritual things.  This  being  the  case,  the  man  living  in  the  body 
who  has  sinned  in  the  body  (For  it  was  with  the  hand  and 
mouth  that  he  plucked  and  ate  of  the  forbidden  fruit,)  confesses 
outwardly  his  sin,  recites  outwardly  a  definite  creed,  and  is  ad- 
mitted by  an  outward  rite  into  fellowship  with  an  outward 
community,  and  to  the  participation  of  certain  outward  privi- 
leges of  membership,  on  the  condition  of  abstaining  from  certain 
outward  acts  named  by  the  law  of  God  and  by  the  canons  of 
the  outward  community  as  incompatible  with  its  fellowship. 
If  any  man  after  having  been  admitted  fails  to  keep  his  pledge, 
and  his  fall  be  known  to  the  congregation,  their  knowledge  of 
it  imposes  upon  tliem  the  duty  of  ''  putting  away  from  them- 
selves that  wicked  person."  But  if  his  fall  be  known  as  yet 
only  to  himself,  his  knowledge  or  consciousness  of  it  imposes 
upon  him  the  duty  of  abstaining  from  any  surreptitious  partici- 
pation in  those  privileges  to  which  he  knows  he  has  no  right. 
Common  sense  and  honesty,  if  unperverted  by  any  false  tra- 


230        OF    THE    NECESSITY    OF    CONFESSION    TO    A    PRIEST. 

dition  or  custom,  (to  say  nothing  of  religious  fear,)  must  teacli 
him  that,  whatever  might  be  said  of  any  merely  mental  sin  not 
cognizable  by  the  outward  Church,  yet  in  the  case  of  overt  acts 
involving  outwai'd  excommunication  he  cannot  have  a  right  to 
judge  of  the  sufficiency  of  his  own  repentance,  nor  to  readmit 
himself  to  bodily  sacraments,  after  a  bodily  loss  of  his  right  to 
them,  by  a  merely  inward  act  of  his  own  mind ;  whereas,  if  his 
sin  by  any  accident  were  to  become  known  afterwards,  his  opi- 
nion of  his  own  penitence  and  the  fact  that  he  had  presumed  to 
take  the  Sacraments  in  virtue  of  that  opinion  could  avail  nothing 
to  exempt  him  from  being  excommunicated,  and  from  having  to 
perform  the  full  term  of  canonical  penance. 

This  doctrine,  therefore,  has  ever  been  held  by  the  Church, 
and  most  of  all  at  the  very  beginning,  that  so  far  as  the  hierar- 
chy has  "  bound  '^  any  thing  "  on  earth,'^  (whether  by  pro- 
scribing certain  outward  sins  on  account  of  their  inherent 
deadliness  and  incompatibility  with  the  Body  of  Christ,  or 
by  enforcing  its  own  lawful  commands  or  prohibitions  by  the 
penalty  of  excommunication,)  a  lapse  into  such  sins  or  oflfences 
incapacitates  the  transgressor  for  participation  in  the  Holy 
Communion  until  he  has  submitted  himself  to  penance,  and  has 
obtained  Absolution,  that  is,  until  he  has  been  loosed  from  his 
bond  by  that  sacramental  power  which  imposed  it.  But  the 
true  novelty  and  corruption,  or  rather  heresy  and  utter  destruc- 
tion of  the  sacramental  body  of  the  Church,  is  the  doctrine  that 
they  who  have  committed  acts  of  sin  worthy  of  excommunica- 
tion, so  long  as  the  act  remains  secret,  and  the  sinner  thinks 
himself  sufficiently  penitent,  may  rightly  "  quiet  their  own  con- 
sciences,'^ and  take  to  themselves  the  Holy  Communion  as  if 
they  had  not  fallen ;  and  that  the  Church  is  not  obliged  to 
teach  men  otherwise. 

The  identity  in  principle  of  the  primitive  and  the  modern  dis- 
cipline respecting  Confession  and  Absolution  being  once  per- 
ceived, there  will  be  little  difficulty  in  tracing  the  origin  and 
explaining  the  grounds  of  those  gradual  changes  by  which  the 
modern  system  has  come  to  differ  so  greatly,  as  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted to  differ  in  details,  from  the  ancient. 

At  the  very  beginning  the  Church  would  naturally  anticipate  or 
contemplate  sin  in  Baptized  Christians,  among  "  the  brethren  " 


OF    THE    NECESSITY    OF    CONFESSION    TO    A    PRIEST.      231 

and  "  the  saints,"  as  little  as  possible :  and  the  earliest  cata- 
logue of  excoramunicable  sins  may  have  been  briefly  summed 
up  in  the  Apostolic  Canon  sent  to  the  first  Gentile  converts 
under  the  three  heads  of  idolatry,  uncleanness,  and  blood. 

As  time  went  on,  and  particular  cases  of  sin  were  forced  upon 
the  notice  of  the  Church,  the  Canons  would  become  more  full 
and  explicit  both  concerning  the  varieties  of  sins  referable  to 
the  three  abovementioned  heads,  and  concerning  others  for 
which  at  first  there  was  no  specified  penance. 

Further  additions  would  accrue  from  the  positive  legislation 
of  the  Church  herself,  which  would  begin  to  enforce  her  discip- 
line and  her  customs  by  excommunication,  in  proportion  as  she 
saw  need  for  such  exercise  of  authority. 

But  if  at  any  particular  time  in  early  ages  certain  sins  are 
mentioned  by  any  Father  as  not  needing  to  be  confessed  to  the 
Church  or  to  a  Priest  which  in  later  times  would  need  to  be 
confessed,  this  fact  by  no  means  shows  that  at  the  time  in  question 
no  secret  sins  were  held  to  need  confession.  Nor  because  after 
some  sins  men  were  then  free  to  continue  to  Communicate  if  only 
inwardly  penitent,  (though  they  were  in  all  cases  encouraged  to 
confess  to  a  Priest,)  does  it  therefore  follow  that  they  understood 
themselves  to  have  in  all  cases  alike  the  same  liberty  of  either 
confessing  only  to  God  or  to  the  Priest  also  according  to  their 
own  discretion. 

The  gradual  transition  of  the  public  Discipline  into  the 
system  of  private  Confession  and  Absolution  would  also  neces- 
sarily tend  to  increase  the  number  of  sins  held  to  need  confes- 
sion, and  to  introduce  a  facility  for  the  same  person  to  obtain 
many  times  penance  and  absolution  :  so  that  instead  of  being  a 
single  plank  after  shipwreck,  a  single  outward  restoration  allowed 
once  only  to  them  that  had  lapsed  after  Baptism,  as  in  the 
earliest  times,  Confession,  Penance,  and  Absolution  came  to  be 
rather  an  ordinary  training  from  imperfection  towards  perfec- 
tion, and  even  from  habits  of  mortal  sin  towards  habitual  con- 
trition and  correction. 

Again,  when  partly  from  the  general  ileterioration  of  morals 
and  infrequency  of  Communion,  and  partly  from  Confession 
having  already  become  a  custom,  the  Church  imposed  a  law  on 
all  her  members  (whether  guilty  of  excomraunicable  sins  or  not) 


232         OF    THE    NECESSITY    OF    CONFESSION    TO    A    PRIEST. 

to  Confess  themselves  to  a  Priest  at  least  once  a  year,  this 
change  would  have  a  powciful  tendency  to  increase  both  the  fre- 
qnency  and  the  minuteness  of  Confession.  For  though  at  iirst 
the  prescribed  form  was  (as  it  still  is  in  the  Eastern  Church,) 
nothing  else  than  an  interrogatory  or  examination  by  the  Priest, 
thus :  "  Tell  me,  mi/  son,  hast  thou  not  done  so  or  so  ?"  going 
through  the  catalogue  of  excommunicable  sins,  so  that  if  the 
penitent  were  free  from  all  these  there  would  seem  to  be  no 
confession  required,  nor  penance  to  be  imposed,  nor  absolution 
to  be  given,  still,  when  once  a  Christian  had  been  brought  by 
the  Church  before  his  Confessor,  it  would  seem  unnatural  and 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  humiUty  and  compunction  to  go  away 
as  if  justitied,  and  to  Communicate  as  if  of  right,  merely  because 
by  God's  grace  he  bad  been  preserved  free  from  excommunica- 
ble sins.  It  would  be  natural  rather,  and  inevitable,  that  the 
more  perfect  Christians  should  acknowledge  themselves  to  be 
sinners  no  less  than  others,  confessing  all  sins  whatever,  even 
venial,  which  they  found  on  their  consciences,  and  using  the 
prescribed  discipline  of  periodical  Confession  in  the  same  way 
as  they  might  in  earlier  times  have  used  voluntary  Confession 
in  cases  where  it  was  not  required. 

And  when  the  matter  had  reached  this  stage,  it  would  be 
natural  that  penitents  (apart  from  their  own  readiness  to  go 
beyond  the  rule  in  accusing  themselves  rather  than  fall  short 
of  it,)  should  be  held  to  be  bound  to  confess  not  only  such  sins 
as  were  named  by  the  Canons  as  outwardly  mortal,  that  is,  as 
incurring  excommunication,  but  also  all  such  others  as  seemed 
to  be  equivalent  to  these  in  inward  guilt,  even  though  not  named, 
nor  ])crhaps  capable  of  biing  named  by  any  canons  of  discip- 
line. Thus  confession  of  inwardly  mortal  sins  which  had  no 
place  of  public  penitence,  and  the  confession  of  which  was 
optional  in  early  times,  came  to  be  included  under  the  public 
Discipline  :  and  the  benefit  of  what  is  now  called  spiritual 
Direction,  which  in  early  times  it  needed  a  sj)ecial  effort  of  piety 
to  seek  and  find,  is  now  offered  systematically  to  all  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  prescribed  use  of  Confession,  out  of  which  it 
naturally  arises. 

It  is  true  that  as  in  early  times  not  even  the  severity  of  public 
penances,  nor  the  abundance  of  sanctity  within  the  Church,  nor 


OV    THE    NECESSITY    OF    CONFESSION    TO    A    PRIEST.  233 

the  visible  separation  of  the  unbelieving  immoral  and  perse- 
cuting world,  could  prevent  the  gradual  declension  of  Christian 
faith  and  charity,  so  neither  now  can  the  discipline  of  Confes- 
sion established  in  the  Latin  and  in  the  Greek  Church  prevent 
the  declension  of  nations  and  societies  to  any  conceivable  de- 
gree of  general  immorality  and  wickedness ;  and  that  too  not 
only  in  conjunction  with  open  rebellion  against  discipline,  but 
also  in  conjunction  with  its  formal  observance.  This  down- 
ward tendency  even  in  the  Christian  society  is  a  mystery  which 
no  man  can  fathom.  But  lest  it  should  shake  our  faith,  it  has 
been  foretold  from  the  beginning  that  it  should  be  so :  That 
like  the  antediluvian  world,  like  the  cities  of  the  plain,  like  the 
nations  of  Canaan,  like  the  kingdoms  of  Israel  and  Judah  before 
the  destruction  of  the  first  Temple,  and  like  the  Jewish  people 
before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  so  also  the  Chris- 
tian world  is  to  become  in  the  apparent  majority  of  its  mendjers 
and  in  its  public  character  an  apostacy  before  the  return  of 
Christ  to  judgment,  when  the  earth  with  the  works  that  are  in 
it  shall  be  burned  up.  It  is  not  till  the  ungodly  shall  be  green  as 
the  grass,  and  when  all  the  workers  of  iniquity  flourish,  that  they 
shall  be  destroyed  for  ever.  This  permitted  development  and 
prevalence  of  evil  therefore  neither  the  discipline  of  Confession 
nor  any  other  sacraments  or  checks  of  the  Church  can  over- 
come. Rather,  like  other  sacred  things,  and  like  other  customs 
intended  by  the  Church  for  good,  the  custom  of  habitual 
Confession  is  capable  of  becoming  a  snare  and  an  opiate,  con- 
cealing- from  the  Christian  society  and  from  individuals  the 
depth  of  their  own  lapse,  and  conducing  to  the  destruction  of 
them  that  perish.  But  to  those  that  are  fallen  indeed  but 
capable  of  real  restoration  it  is  a  most  blessed  medicine  and 
safeguard :  and  to  them  that  are  preserved  from  mortal  sins  it 
is  a  most  profitable  assistance  in  the  way  of  perfection. 

It  is  liable,  no  doubt,  to  particular  abuses,  and  may  some- 
times have  become  the  occasion  of  scandals.  But  all  good 
things  are  liable  to  abuse  :  and  the  abuse  of  that  which  is  best 
is  most  pernicious,  according  to  the  proverb.  A  traitor  among  the 
Apostles,  or  a  reprobate  among  the  Christian  clergy,  are  no  doubt 
the  very  masterworks  of  Satan  :  but  it  is  no  argument  that  the 
Apostolate  or  the  Priesthood  are  evil  in  themselves,  because 


234         OF    THE    NECESSITY    OP    CONFESSION    TO    A    PRIEST. 

through  their  existeace  such  enormity  of  wickedness  is  possible. 
Rather  on  the  contrary,  if  the  thing  in  itself  be  good,  the  in- 
tensity of  the  evil  which  arises  from  its  abuse  or  perversion  is  a 
sign  of  the  degree  of  its  goodness.  And  so  if  the  discipline  of 
Confession  be  good  in  itself,  the  magnitude  of  any  particu- 
lar scandals  which  have  been  connected  with  it  can  cause  no 
just  prejudice  against  it,  but  on  the  contrary  is  rather  a  sign  of 
its  preeminent  value  and  importance.  Whatever  such  scandals 
there  may  have  been  in  later  ages,  and  more  especially  in  the 
Western  Church,  whether  in  respect  of  some  rare  cases  of  in- 
dividuals or  of  social  laxity  and  corruption,  they  have  been  dwelt 
upon  and  exaggerated  beyond  measure  by  Protestants :  and 
their  prejudice  and  heat  on  this  subject  seem  to  border  upon 
madness.  Or  rather  it  is  a  special  delusion  of  the  enemy  to 
set  men  against  that  medicine  of  all  others  which  they  most 
need.  But  if  any  man  be  capable  of  inquiring  seriously  and  dis- 
passionately whether  the  discipline  of  Confession  as  it  exists 
among  the  Roman-Catholics  and  the  Easterns  be  upon  the  vvhole 
a  good  thing  or  a  bad,  training  men  and  women  to  purity  or  to 
impurity,  to  religion  or  to  irreligion,  to  heaven  or  to  hell,  he  has 
only  to  attend,  and  to  mark  what  is  the  testimony  of  those  wit- 
nesses which  are  of  all  witnesses  the  most  irrecusable,  and  the 
most  nearly  concerned ;  of  the  best  people  he  can  find  among  his 
Roman-Catholic  or  Orthodox  acquaintances  on  the  one  hand,  and 
of  the  worst  he  knows  on  the  other.  The  former'will  tell  him  that 
it  is  a  blessed  instrument  for  the  salvation  of  souls.  But  the  lat- 
ter, the  representatives  of  the  devil,  the  world  and  the  flesh,  what 
do  these  say  of  the  Confessional  ?  Do  they  like  it  ?  Do  they 
frequent  it  ?  Do  they  amuse  themselves  with  it  ?  If  they  do, 
then  perhaps  the  religious  public  among  Protestants  may  be 
justified  in  bestowing  upon  it  as  much  blame,  and  much  more 
indignation  than  they  bestow  upon  the  Theatre  or  the  Opera, 
and  on  whatever  is  behind  the  scenes  of  these  and  other  public 
amusements.  But  the  inhabitants  of  a  city  in  which  there  are 
said  to  be  so  many  thousands  of  their  fellow-creatures  living  by 
prostitution  are  too  pure  to  be  questioned  in  the  church  by  a 
Priest  about  sins  which  so  many  of  them  commit,  and  which  so 
many  more  must  indirectly  (consciously  or  unconsciously)  en- 
courage.    They  are  too  delicate  to  hear  any  mention  of  sins  of 


OF    THE    NECESSITY    OF    CONFESSION    TO    A    PRIEST.  235 

impurity  even  from  the  law  of  God,  even  though  joined  not 
with  incentives  to  sensuahty,  as  in  their  own  fine  arts  and 
literature,  but  with  the  most  terrible  threateuings  of  the  ven- 
geance of  eternal  fire,  and  with  the  most  moving  encourage- 
ments to  purity  and  virtue.  Such  is  the  delicacy  of  Sodom,  the 
purity  of  Gomorrha. 


DISSERTATION   XVI. 

ON    THE    SEPTENARY    NUMBER    OF     THE    MYSTERIES    OR    SACRA- 
MENTS. 

It  is  objected  against  the  Eastern  Orthodox  Church  by  Protes- 
tants, and  sometimes  by  Anglicans,  that  she  has  adopted  from 
the  Roman  Church  the  doctrine  that  the  Sacraments  are  Seven 
in  number,  which  is  called  one  of  the  errors  of  Popery. 

It  is  true  that  this  doctrine,  or  rather  this  mode  of  speech, 
was  unknown  to  the  ancients.  But  on  the  other  hand  when 
Protestants  teach  that  the  Sacraments  are  two,  or  two  only,  they 
introduce  a  number  and  a  limitation  which  were  just  as  little 
known  to  the  ancients  as  the  number  Seven. 

In  holy  Scripture  and  in  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  very 
many  things  are  called  mysteries  or  sacraments,  and  in  various 
senses  and  respects,  which  may  all  perhaps  be  reduced  under 
the  general  idea  of  a  holy  thiug  which  is  hidden.  This  general 
undefined  use  of  the  words  "  sacrament  "  and  "  mi/sterij  "  is  still 
current  among  both  Greeks  and  Latins  notwithstandnig  their 
introduction  of  the  doctrine  that  the  Sacraments  or  Mysteries 
arc  Seven.  But  among  the  Protestants  aud  Anglicans  the  same 
is  not  the  case.  Among  them  the  Greek  word  "  mystery  "  alone 
retains  its  ancient  latitude  of  signification,  while  the  correspon- 
ding Latin  word  "  sacrament "  is  rigidly  confined,  according  to 
an  arbitrary  definition,  to  the  two  great  Sacraments  *f  Baptism 
and  the  Eucharist. 

When  a  Greek  or  a  Russian  first  hears  it  objected  against  his 
Church  that  she  teaches  Seven  Sacraments,  he  imagines  that 
the  very  existence  and  use  of  some  one  or  more  of  the  seven  is 
attacked ;  or  that  at  least  it  is  denied  that  they  each  convey  to 
such  as  rightly  receive  them  a  special  grace  of  their  own,  and 


OF    SEVEN    SACRAMENTS.  237 

are  more  than  mere  outward  symbols  or  rites.  But  if  it  be  ad- 
mitted that  any  one  of  the  other  five  besides  Baptism  and  the 
Eucharist  (as  for  instance  that  Ordination,  Confirmation,  or 
Absolution)  does  convey  grace,  this  is  to  him  a  full  admission 
that  it  is  a  Sacrament.  And  if  it  be  admitted  (as  some  Angli- 
cans will  admit)  that  all  the  seven  carry  with  them  an  accom- 
panying grace,  he  will  perhaps  say  "  So  then  it  seems  that  our 
Church  always  had  seven  Sacraments,  and  the  Latins  have 
counted  them  for  us.  And  if  they  have  counted  aright,  what 
error  is  it  that  we  assent,  and  say  after  them.  Yes ;  the  Sacra- 
ments or  Mysteries  are  seven  ?" 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  Protestant  or  the  Anglican  be  re- 
quired to  put  his  own  doctrine,  that  the  Sacraments  are  two,  or 
two  only,  into  Greek,  he  will  at  first  perhaps  be  a  little  startled 
at  the  plain  absurdity  or  novelty,  even  for  himself,  of  asserting 
that  there  are  only  two  mysteries,  or  that  "the  Mysteries"  are  two 
only  :  {"Jvo  fcrr)  fxovov  ra  Mv(7Tripia'")  but  after  a  moment's  hesi- 
tation he  will  yield  to  necessity,  and  will  attempt  to  confine  the 
Greek  word  also,  as  well  as  the  Latin,  within  the  limits  of  his 
own  arbitrary  definition. 

It  would  be  more  rational,  instead  of  disputing  about  the 
mere  definition  of  a  word,  to  perceive  that  whether  the  Greeks 
and  Latins  on  the  one  side,  or  the  Anglicans  on  the  other,  be 
rather  right  of  the  two,  there  is  probably  some  truth  underlying 
both  their  modes  of  speech.  And  if  we  examine  what  this  truth 
is  in  each  case,  we  shall  be  better  able  to  judge  whether  there  is 
any  exaggeration  or  distortion  on  either  side;  whether  the  two 
modes  of  speech  agree  in  sense,  and  are  simply  compatible  the 
one  with  the  other,  or,  if  not  so,  which  of  them  must  in  rea- 
son yield  to  the  other. 

What  then  was  it,  let  us  ask,  which  moved  the  Latin  school- 
men of  the  middle  ages,  from  the  time  of  Peter  Lombard,  to 
pick  out  and  count  from  the  innumerable  sacraments  of  Christi- 
anity neither  more  nor  less  than  seven,  and  to  call  those  seven  em- 
phatically and  in  a  technical  sense  'Hhe  Sacraments  V  And  what 
was  it  which  moved  the  later  Greeks,  in  spite  of  their  separation 
and  their  jealousy,  so  readily  to  accept  from  the  Latins  a  doctrine 
and  mode  of  speech  which  was  unknown  to  their  Fathers  ?  The 
motives  which  we  inquire  after  seem  to  have  been  these  two : 


238  ON    THE    SEPTENARY    NUMBER 

First,  there  was  a  predisposition  to  look  for  the  number  seven 
in  all  things  connected  with  the  operation  of  the  sevenfold  Di- 
vine Spirit.  And  so  it  would  seem  antecedently  probable  that 
the  chief  Mysteries  or  sacramental  rites  of  Christianity  should 
be  seven  in  number,  even  before  the  mind  of  the  theologian  had 
considered  the  relation  of  particular  Mysteries  to  one  another, 
or  settled  what  the  seven  must  be.  Such  a  predisposition  may 
be  observed  at  the  present  day  among  the  Nestorians  of  Kurdis- 
tan, and  among  some  of  the  Monophysites,  who  have  heard 
from  Roman  missionaries  that  the  Sacraments  are  seven,  and 
have  relished  and  accepted  this  information,  though  they  have 
not  as  yet  learned  how  to  count  the  seven  aright. 

Secondly,  the  schoolmen  of  the  middle  ages  perceived  (and 
the  modern  Greeks  agree  with  them  in  perceiving)  the  existence 
of  such  a  mutual  relation  and  connection  between  certain  seven 
sacred  Mysteries  as  separated  them  off  from  all  others,  and  united 
them  together  into  one  system.  For  in  the  Christian  Church 
there  is  need  first  of  Marriage,  in  order  to  the  natural  birth  of 
living  souls.  For  unless  men  are  born  into  the  world  of  the  llesh 
they  cannot  be  born  again  of  the  spirit.  This  is  one  Mystery. 
Secondly,  after  natural  birth,  there  is  the  Mystery  of  the  new 
birth,  Baj)tism,  which  alone  is  mentioned  in  the  Creed  because 
it  draws  after  it  all  the  rest.  Thirdly,  after  a  man  has  been 
born  again,  he  needs  a  certain  quickening  and  strengthening  of 
his  spiritual  life,  even  as  the  natural  life  which  was  at  first 
without  consciousness,  latent  and  dormant,  is  afterwards  awa- 
kened into  energy  and  strength.  And  for  this  there  is  another 
Mystery  of  Chrism  or  Confirmation,  the  Seal  of  the  Gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  But  after  life  has  been  given  by  birth,  and  that 
which  is  born  has  been  quickened  into  consciousness  and  energy, 
there  is  need  of  food  to  support  life.  The  Mystery  therefore  of 
Baptism  or  spiritual  birth  implies  and  requires  another  Mystery 
(which  W'ill  be  a  fourth,)  of  a  new  and  spiritual  food.  This  is 
the  Eucharist.  But  if  the  spiritual  life  given  by  Baptism  and 
nourished  by  the  Eucharist  is  impaired  by  any  spiritual  sickness, 
(according  to  the  analogy  of  the  natural  life,)  so  that  food  is  no 
longer  allowable  or  nutritious,  there  will  be  need  of  some  spiri- 
tual medicine,  which  is  a  fifth  Mystery,  that  of  Penitence  and 
Absolution.  Again,  if  the  body  which  is  united  to  the  regenerate 


OF    THE    SACRAMENTS.  239 

soul,  and  wbicli  is  to  be  raised  from  the  dead,  suffers  any  sickness 
in  consequence  of  sin,  (whether  such  consequence  be  only  gene- 
ral and  remote,  or  special,)  there  will  be  place  for  another  Mys- 
tery, a  sixth,  for  the  healing  of  the  body  so  far  as  it  is  afflicted 
through  sin,  and  for  the  remission  of  sin  so  far  as  it  affects  the 
body.  This  is  the  Unction  of  the  Sick  ivith  Prayer.  And  lastly, 
that  there  may  be  Clergy  to  confer  all  these  preceding  Mysteries, 
there  still  needs  one  more,  a  seventh,  that  of  Priesthood  or  Order. 

Or  we  might  have  begun  with  the  Mystery  of  Priesthood, 
since  in  order  of  time  it  must  precede  the  sacerdotal  ministra- 
tion of  all  the  rest.  And  it  was  not  till  the  Apostles  had  re- 
ceived for  themselves  all  Sacraments  at  once  in  their  Baptism 
of  fire,  and  among  them  the  grace  of  the  Priesthood,  that  they 
began  to  Baptize  converts,  and  to  Confirm  them  by  Laying 
on  of  Hands,  and  to  feed  them  spiritually  with  the  Eucharist, 
and  to  restore  fallen  penitents  by  Absolution,  and  to  lay  their 
hands  on  the  sick,  praying  over  them  and  Anointing  them  with 
oil,  for  their  recovery,  and  that  the  Church  might  continue  and 
increase  through  children  being  born  for  Baptism,  to  bless  the 
union  of  Christian  Marriage,  and  to  reproduce  by  Ordination  of 
Clergy  the  grace  of  Priesthood  in  their  successors,  to  continue  the 
same  cycle  of  ordinary  sacramental  ministrations  from  genera- 
tion to  generation. 

Whether  we  begin  from  Ordination  and  end  with  Marriage, 
or  begin  from  Marriage  and  end  with  Ordination,  the  order  of 
the  intermediate  five  Mysteries  in  virtue  of  their  mutual  connec- 
tion will  be  the  same :  and  the  Eucharist  will  in  both  cases  alike 
be  the  fourth,  the  central  and  culminating  Mystery  of  the  Seven. 

These  Seven  have  ever  existed  in  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Church  of  the  East  and  West ;  and  have  been  preserved  in  the  an- 
cient but  heretical  communities  of  the  Nestorians  and  the  Mono- 
physites  from  the  time  of  their  separation  in  the  fifth  century. 
They  have  been  preserved  too  in  the  Anglican  Church  which 
was  separated  from  the  Roman-Catholic  Communion  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  though  in  this  latter  case  with  some  considerable 
mutilations.  Nay,  even  in  the  sects  of  the  Protestants  and  the 
Reformed,  or  in  most  of  them,  there  remain  such  fragments  or 
traces  of  them  all,  that  even  to  their  members  we  may  be 
intelligible  when  we  say  that  these  Seven  are  the  great  external 


240  ON    THE    SEPTENARY    NUMBER 

acts  of  religion  ;  the  generative,  strengthening,  sustaining,  repa- 
rative, and  perpetuative  acts,  joints,  and  bands  of  visible  Chris- 
tianity; through  which  by  the  concurrence  of  Divine  grace 
the  invisible  and  spiritual  body  of  the  Church  is  generated, 
nourished,  repaired,  and  increased.  From  these  Seven  no  one 
can  be  taken  away,  so  as  to  leave  only  six ;  nor  can  any  other  be 
added  to  them,  so  as  to  increase  their  number  to  eight. 

Thus  the  truth  and  propriety  of  the  assertion  that  the  Sacra- 
ments or  Mysteries  are  Seven  lies  not  merely  in  the  fact  that  in 
each  one  of  the  seven  taken  by  itself  there  is  something  hidden, 
beyond  what  meets  the  senses ;  that  there  is  an  outward  symbol 
or  rite  or  act  accompanied  by  an  inward  spiritual  grace ;  and 
that  each  one  of  them  is  necessary  or  important  towards  the 
being  or  edification  of  the  Church ;  but  rather  in  their  mutual 
relation  and  connexion.  It  is  in  virtue  of  this  mutual  re- 
lation that  each  one  of  the  seven  is  truly  reckoned  as  one 
Mystery  with  regard  to  the  rest,  though  some  of  them  are  in 
fact  in  themselves  complex,  others  only  single  Mysteries.  The 
Eucharist,  for  instance,  is  compounded  of  two  distinct  mysteries, 
one  of  the  Body,  the  other  of  the  Blood :  and  Priesthood  contains 
within  itself  a  separate  mystery  in  each  of  the  Holy  Orders. 
But  with  respect  to  the  spiritual  birth  the  spiritual  food, 
though  subdivisible  into  meat  and  drink,  is  as  one  idea  and  one 
thing :  and  with  respect  to  all  other  Sacraments  Priesthood 
(that  is,  the  grace  which  makes  and  administers  all  the  rest,) 
though  it  may  contain  distinctions  within  itself,  is  as  one  idea 
and  one  thing. 

Within  this  septenary  system  two  Mysteries,  those  of  Bap- 
tism and  the  Eucharist,  are  so  pre-eminent,  differ  so  in  kind 
from  all  the  rest,  and  have  such  a  special  mutual  relation  to  one 
another,  that  so  long  as  the  mutual  relation  of  the  Seven  is  not 
denied,  it  may  be  said  with  truth  that  "  the  chief  Mysteries,"  or, 
speaking  emphatically,  "the  Mysteries"  of  the  Gospel,  of  the  New 
Law,  of  the  New  Testament,  of  the  Church,  or  of  Christianity, 
are  these  two,  answering  to  the  two  great  foederal  rites  of  the  Old 
Testament,  Circumcision  and  the  eating  of  the  Paschal  Lamb. 
For  these  two  alone  are  directly  necessary  both  to  the  Church 
and  to  individuals,  ("  generally,"  that  is,  or  to  all  men)  in  order 
to   salvation.     Of  the  other   five   some    (as  Confirmation    and 


OF    THE    SACRAMENTS. 


241 


Unction,)  arc  only  conducive  to  salvation,  as  imparting  some 
spiritual  grace :  others,  if  necessary,  are  necessary  only  to  some 
men,  and  under  particular  circumstances,  (as  Penitence  and 
Absolution  to  the  lapsed ;)  or  they  are  necessary  not  directly  to 
individuals,  but  indirectly,  for  the  sake  of  other  Sacraments,  as 
being  necessary  to  the  Church.  Such  are  Ordination  and  Mar- 
riage. Again,  in  Baptism  and  the  Eucharist  alone  is  there  an 
outward  sign  instituted  by  Christ  Himself  to  be  the  means  of 
conveying  the  inward  grace  which  it  signifies.  And  the  history 
of  the  first  announcement  of  each  of  these  two  Mysteries  (to 
Nicodemus,  and  to  the  Jews  at  Capernaum,)  of  their  actual 
institution  afterwards,  and  of  their  administration  in  the  Church, 
beginning  from  the  day  of  Pentecost,  is  recorded  with  a  marked 
parallelism  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament.  And  other 
similar  observations  may  be  made  with  truth  to  exhibit  the  pre- 
eminence of  these  two  great  Mysteries.  All  which  may  be 
briefly  summed  up  and  explained  by  one  consideration,  namely, 
that  by  these  two  alone  the  very  substance  of  the  Church,  the 
second  Eve,  is  formed  from  the  substance  of  Christ  the  second 
Adam,  bone  of  his  bone,  and  flesh  of  his  flesh.  By  Baptism  we 
have  the  spiritual  birth  ;  by  the  Eucharist  we  have  the  spiritual 
food.  But  generation  or  birth  and  food,  the  first  creation  of 
our  substance  and  its  nourishment  and  increase  afterwards  by 
food  consubstantial  with  itself,  make  up  together  the  whole  of 
life.  All  other  benefits,  however  important,  can  be  only  relative 
and  subordinate  to  these. 

This  truth  (which  is  fully  acknowledged  and  taught  by  the 
Eastern  Church,  and  is  not  denied  by  the  Roman,)  has  become  an 
occasion  of  error  to  the  Protestants,  who  not  content  with  assert- 
ing the  preeminence,  and  difference  in  kind,  and  peculiar  mutual 
relation  of  the  two  chief  Sacraments  of  the  Gospel,  have  framed 
arbitrary  definitions,  excluding  even  from  the  name  of  sacra- 
ments all  sacraments  besides  these  two,  and  more  especially 
denying  the  truth,  that,  if  one  speaks  generally  and  absolutely, 
the  Sacraments  of  Christianity  are  Seven.  And  though  mere 
ignorance  of  the  mutual  relation  and  number  of  the  Seven  Mys- 
teries, or  even  the  error  of  restraining  the  use  of  the  Latin  word 
"  sacrament "  to  two  only,  might  seem  very  slight  defects  not 
affecting  faith  in  any  Church  which  still  retained  in    use  all  the 


R 


242  ON    THE    SEPTENARY    NUINtBER 

Seven  Sacraments,  and  taught  that  each  of  them  conferred  its 
proper  grace,  still  in  point  of  fact  among  the  Protestants  and 
Reformed  these  faults  are  connected  with  specific  heresies  con- 
cerning each  of  the  Sacraments,  and  in  some  cases  with  their 
total  disuse  and  abolition. 

Some  indeed,  especially  among  the  Anglicans,  do  not  very 
much  insist  on  their  own  language  of  Two  Sacraments,  nor  con- 
tend that  the  Roman  doctrine  of  there  being  Seven  Sacraments 
is  absolutely  false  or  inadmissible.  But  they  complain  that  it 
is  imposed  de  fide,  as  necessary  to  salvation,  being  one  of  the 
twelve  articles  of  the  new  Creed  of  Pope  Pius.  They  say  that 
the  adding  of  new  articles  to  the  Creed,  even  if  the  articles  added 
be  true  or  probable  in  themselves,  is  a  capital  error,  and  that 
into  this  error  the  Roman  Church  has  fallen  on  the  subject  of 
the  Sacraments,  and  has  drawn  after  her  the  Easterns. 

But  it  is  a  misconception  to  imagine  that  every  proposition 
which  is  decreed  to  be  "  de  fide  "  by  the  Roman  Church  is  there- 
fore held  to  be  equivalent  to  an  article  of  the  Creed,  or  necessary 
in  itself  to  salvation.  This  is  no  more  true  than  is  the  notion 
that  whenever  the  Roman  Church  commands  or  forbids  any  act 
"  under  pain  of  mortal  sin,''  the  breach  of  such  a  command  has  in 
itself  the  same  guilt  as  the  breach  of  one  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments of  God.  On  the  contrary,  by  decreeing  any  proposition  to 
be  held  ^'de  fide,"  or  by  commanding  or  forbidding  any  act  '■hinder 
pain  of  mortal  sin,"  the  Church  may  often  mean  merely  to  declare 
that  she  uses  her  authority,  and  in  case  of  necessity  will  enforce 
obedience  by  excommunication.  Thus  what  of  its  own  nature, 
intrinsically  and  directly,  is  neither  de  fide,  nor  mortal  sin,  may 
become  so  indirectly,  through  the  necessity  of  believing  the 
Church,  (For  that  is  an  article  of  the  Creed,  and  of  the  faith,) 
and  through  the  duty  of  obeying  her.  And  the  use  of  the  word 
"  Sacrament "  or  "  Mystery  "  as  a  word  of  the  second  intention, 
to  teach  briefly  to  all  the  mutual  relation  and  number  of  certain 
spiritual  graces  or  gifts,  though  it  is  not  in  itself  any  matter  of 
faith,  yet  is  by  no  means  a  mere  matter  of  arbitrary  and  unim- 
portant terminology;  but  in  the  present  state  of  Christianity  it 
has  an  important  bearing  on  the  conservation  of  the  true  belief, 
and  even  of  the  outward  integrity  of  the  Mysteries  themselves. 
Nor  is  it  a  mere  rejection  of  Roman  or  Greek  authority,  or  a 


OF    THE    SACRAMENTS. 


243 


mere  difference  between  rival  authorities,  to  have  substituted  for 
the  doctrine  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  Church  such  a  form  as 
this,  that  "  The  Sacraments  ordained  by  Christ  as  generally  ne- 
cessary to  salvation  are  Two  only."  For  though  this  may  be  true 
as  limited  by  the  words  "generally  necessary  to  salvation,"  the 
practical  effect  is  all  one  with  teaching  absolutely  that  there  are 
only  two  sacraments;  and  that  the  other  five  are  not  sacra- 
ments at  all.  And  hence  both  Clergy  and  Laity  among  the 
Anglicans  come  to  have  very  doubtful  notions  concerning  the 
spiritual  nature  and  importance  of  the  five  lesser  Sacraments,  not 
believing  distinctly  that  Confirmation  is  the  Gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  nor  that  it  is  necessary  to  Confess  to  a  Priest  even  ex- 
communicable  sins,  not  offering  Unction  to  the  sick,  nor  disal- 
lowing the  substitution  of  a  mere  civil  contract  for  Christian 
Marriage,  nor  absolutely  denying  the  identity  of  Protestant  and 
Reformed  Preachers  with  Christian  Clergy. 


R  ^ 


DISSERTATION  XVII. 

OF  THE  INVOCxVTION  AND  WORSHIP  OF  SAINTS,  AND  ESPECIALLY 
OF    THE    BLESSED    VIRGIN. 

It  is  objected  by  Protestants  and  by  Anglicans  against  the 
Eastern  Church  that,  in  common  with  the  Roman,  she  invokes 
and  worships  Saints,  and  especially  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary. 

As  regards  Invocation  they  say  that  it  is  wickedness,  because 
there  is  only  "  one  mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  man 
Christ  Jesus."  But  since  we  are  taught  all  of  us  to  pray 
(that  is,  to  intercede  or  mediate)  one  for  another,  and  to  desire 
the  prayers  of  others  for  ourselves,  it  is  plain  that  though  in  one 
sense  there  is  only  one  mediator,  and  no  second  apart  from  or 
concurrently  with  Him,  yet  in  another  secondary  sense,  under 
and  in  Christ  the  primary  mediator,  there  are  many  mediators. 

But  then,  secondly,  they  say  that  admitting  the  existence  of 
such  secondary  mediation  in  Christ,  those  only  who  are  still 
living  in  the  body  upon  earth  can  so  mediate,  and  it  is  therefore 
reasonable  to  desire  the  mediation  of  such  only,  but  not  of 
angels  or  departed  souls.  But  this  objection  is  purely  arbitrary, 
and  is  sufficiently  disposed  of  by  the  Greeks  or  the  Latins  if 
they  reply,  "  So  you  think  perhaps  ;  but  what  if  we  think  other- 
wise, and  act  accordingly  V 

But  then,  thirdly,  they  say  that  granting  that  there  is  a 
secondary  mediation,  and  granting  that  to  suppose  departed 
spirits  to  continue  their  intercessions  begun  on  earth  (whereas 
in  point  of  fact  they  are  unconscious  and  inactive,)  is  a  mere 
innocent  mistake  about  a  matter  of  fact,  and  no  sin  nor  heresy, 
still  to  speak  to  the  spirits  of  the  departed  is  wickedness,  because 
by  so  doing  we  attribute  to  them  omniscience  and  omnipresence, 
which  are  attributes  of  Deity.     But  if  the  bodily  sense  of  every 


OF  THE  INVOCATION  AND  WORSHIP  OF  SAINTS.  245 

insect  and  beast  and  bird  and  of  man   himself  has  in  each  case 
its  proper  range  for  seeing  and  hearing,  and   the  eagle  which 
sees  furthest  is  as  far  removed  from  omnipresence  or  omniscience 
as  the  fly,  then  surely  there  will  be  no  necessary  encroachment 
upon  Deity  even  if  we  suppose  a  creature  to  see  and  hear  at 
once  every  thing  that  passes  within   the  whole  solar  system. 
And  in  truth  we  know  nothing  of  the  faculties  of  spirits,  nor  of 
the  laws  of  their  exercise  aad  limitation :  we  know  nothing  of 
the  range  of  their  sight  and  hearing,  that  is,  of  their  knowledge 
or  presence  :  only  we  are  inclined  to  suppose  a  certain  likeness 
or  analogy  between  the  faculties  of  bodies  and  of  spirits,  and  a 
certain  superiority  in  those  of  the  latter.     The  Prophet  Elisha, 
being  yet  in  the  body,   said  that  his  spirit  saw  and  followed 
Gehazi  when  the  Syrian  turned  again  from  his  chariot  to  meet 
him.     Why  then  may  not  disembodied  spirits  of  Saints  do  as 
much  ?     Again,  we  ascribe  even  to  the  devil  a  very  wide  range 
of  knowledge  and  action,  a  sort  of  ubiquity.     Why  then  may 
not  Angels  and  Saints  know  or  hear  at  least  as  much  of  what 
passes  on  earth  as  does  the  devil  ?  especially  what  has  relation  to 
themselves  ?     Or  if  in  point  of  fact  they  do  not,  but  the  Greeks 
and  Latins  think  they  do,  and  speak  to  them  in  consequence  in 
that  sense  in  which  they  might  lawfully  speak  to  them  if  they 
were  present  in  the  body,  how  can  this   be  more  than  a  mere 
innocent  mistake  as  to  a  matter  of  fact  ?     Not  to  say  that  there 
may  be,  and  are,  other  reasons  for  addressing  them  besides  the 
belief  that  they  actually  hear ;  as,  for  instance,  to  cultivate  in 
ourselves  a  sense  of  the  Communion  of  Saints  by  poetical  hymns 
and  meditations,  and  by  rhetorical  apostrophes,  or  as  an  indirect 
form  of  praying  to  God.     Or  why  should  the  error  of  a  child 
which  calls  to  some  one  (its  mother  perhaps,  or  brother)  who  is 
too  far  oflf  to  hear,  or  divided  by  too  thick  a  wall,  or  altogether 
absent,  be  venial  or  rather  amiable,  but  the  mistake  of  those 
who  invoke  Saints  and  Angels  (supposing  it  to  be  true  that  they 
cannot  hear,)  be  heresy,  or  worthy  of  blame  ?     They  indeed  who 
can  see  no  reason  for  speaking  to  them  will  of  course  not  speak 
to  them  :  they  would  be  acting  absurdly  if  they  did.     But  why 
should  they  quarrel  with   others  who,  thinking  that  there  is 
reason  for  speaking  to  them,  speak  to  them  accordingly  ? 

But  then,  fourthly,  they  say  that  even  admitting  secondary  me- 


246  OF  THE  INVOCATION  AND  AVORSHIP  OF  SAINTS, 

diation,  admitting  tliat  to  suppose  departed  spirits  to  be  conscious 
and  active,  even  if  they  are  not  so,  is  at  most  only  an  innocent 
mistake,  and  admitting  that  to  suppose  them  capable  of  hearing- 
is  not  necessarily  to  ascribe  to  them  omniscience  or  omnipres- 
ence, still  it  is  sinful  to  invoke  them  because  it  is  nowhere  com- 
manded in  holy  Scripture,  But  this  again  is  purely  arbitrary, 
to  suppose  that  nothing  may  be  believed  and  nothing  done  but 
what  is  expressly  commanded  in  holy  Scripture  :  whereas  in  fact 
Christianity  is  not  the  bondage  of  a  prohibitive  law,  but  a  spirit 
of  love  and  liberty  in  Christ.  And  again,  if  any  principle  or 
energy,  as  that  of  mutual  intercession,  is  called  into  action  by 
Christianity,  and  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  it  is  true  to  say  that 
the  continuance  of  this  energy,  and  every  natural  and  legitimate 
application  of  it,  is  by  implication  directed  also.  The  Scriptures 
tell  us  plainly  v/hile  we  are  as  yet  in  the  body  that  we  are  to 
pray  for  the  brethren,  and  for  all  men  :  Who  are  they  that  tell 
us  that  we  are  to  discontinue  this  habit  so  soon  as  we  are  freed 
from  the  burden  of  the  flesh,  and  out  of  danger  for  ourselves  ? 
The  Scriptures  tell  us  plainly  that  we  ought  to  desire  and  on 
occasion  ask  the  prayers  of  our  brethren  while  they  are  as  yet  in 
the  flesh  and  in  danger  for  themselves  :  Who  are  they  who  for- 
bid us  to  continue  to  desire  and  to  ask,  if  we  think  we  have 
occasion,  the  same  prayers  so  soon  as  any  one  comes  to  be 
absent  from  us  in  the  body,  out  of  danger  for  himself,  and  in  a 
higher  state,  with  Christ,  "  which  is  far  better  V  It  rests  with 
the  objectors  surely  to  justify  rather  their  own  arbitrary  limita- 
tions and  prohibitions,  than  to  accuse  those  who  merely  continue 
(without  any  prohibition,  except  from  these  their  neighbours,) 
what  they  have  been  plainly  taught  both  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  by  the  Scriptures  to  begin. 

If  pursued  through  all  the  above  arguments,  the  objectors 
commonly  return  to  the  point  from  which  they  began,  and  re- 
commence with  their  first  objection,  that  there  is  only  one 
mediator,  just  as  if  they  had  as  yet  heard  no  answer  to  this,  and 
had  made  no  concession.  And  thus  further  discussion  becomes 
impossible. 

With  regard  to  worship  the  controversy  is  very  similar.  In 
one  sense  God  only  and  Christ  are  to  be  worshipped,  that  is, 
with  unlimited  devotion  :  But  in  Gou  and  Christ,  and  for  His 


AND  ESPECIALLY  OF  THE  BLESSED  VIRGIN.  247 

sake,  all  good  creatures  rightly  receive,  each  iu  its  proper  degree 
and  respect,  a  secondary  value,  honour,  love,  worship,  or  vene- 
ration :  and  inanimate  things  too,  as  well  as  animated  creatures ; 
both  for  the  sake  of  God,  and  for  the  sake  of  holy  men  or 
things  with  which  they  may  be  associated.  And  this  is  so  uni- 
versally admitted  and  practised,  that  it  is  a  mere  waste  of  words 
to  explain  it,  or  to  insist  upon  it  more  at  length. 

But  they  say  that,  granting  such  secondary  honour  or  worship 
to  be  natural  and  proper,  the  Greeks  and  the  Latins  give  to  the 
Saints  and  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  that  unlimited  worship  which 
is  due  only  to  God.  And  when  this  is  denied  with  horror,  they 
insist  upon  the  use  of  certain  expressions  as  implying  Divine 
worship.  For  the  Greeks  and  Latins  say  not  only  "  Prmj  for 
tis :  "  or  "  Obtain  for  m  by  thrj  prayers  :"  but  also  "  Grant  to 
us  :"  "  Give  us :"  and  even  "Save  us.'^  They  say  that  they  "put 
their  whole  trust "  in  this  or  that  Saint,  and  especially  in  the 
Blessed  Virgin ;  or  even  in  this  or  that  image  or  picture  :  and 
that  the  Blessed  Virgin  is  "  the  only  hope  of  Christians"  or  "  of 
the  whole  race  of  mankind" :  &c.  \n  answer  to  this  it  is  replied 
that  if  any  Protestant  thinks  that  by  using  such  expressions  he 
would  be  offering  divine  worship  to  creatures,  he  does  right  to 
avoid  such  expressions,  and  would  be  doing  wrong  if  he  used 
them.  But  if  others,  using  such  expressions,  assure  hira  that 
they  neither  understand  nor  mean  by  them  any  wickedness,  but 
suppose  them  to  be  as  innocent  and  as  intelligible  as  any  other 
of  those  elliptical  or  hyperbolical  expressions  which  are  in  the 
mouths  of  all  men,  then  he  ought  in  equity  and  reason  to  allow 
them  to  interpret  their  own  words.  If  one  may  say  that  "Baptism 
doth  now  save  us ;"  or  that  "the  Church  (like  the  ark  of  Noah)  is 
the  salvation  of  the  world ;"  or  that  "  the  Cross  is  our  only  hope;" 
and  no  one  needs  to  have  it  explained  that  this  is  not  apart  from 
but  in  Christ,  then  if  any  one  say  also  "  0  most  holy  Mother 
of  God,  save  us  1 "  and  assure  us  that  he  means  the  same  as 
when  he  sa:ys  "  May  the  Mother  of  God  be  our  protection  in 
Christ  Jesus  1"  it  is  a  duty  in  reason  and  in  charity  to  believe 
what  he  says. 

In  fact  so  long  as  any  person  or  community  professes  to  hold 
the  true  faith  of  the  Trinity  and  Incarnation,  to  reserve  unli- 
mited worship,  adoration,  or  XutosIu  to  God  alone,  and  to  render 


248  OF  THE  INVOCATION  AND  WORSHIP  OF  SAINTS, 

all  such  secondary  worship  as  they  render  to  creatures  only  in 
and  not  apart  from  Christ,  it  is  impossible  to  find  any  valid 
theological  objection  not  only  against  Invocations  in  themselves, 
or  against  such  expressions  as  those  mentioned  above,  but 
against  any  conceivable  degree  whatever  of  limited  worship, 
whether  it  be  inward  only,  or  outwardly  expressed  in  words  or 
acts.  Positive  words  or  acts  of  men  can  never  of  themselves 
express  an  unlimited  worship  :  and  even  expressions  of  infinity, 
as  we  have  seen,  are  customarily  used  to  express  merely  a  high 
degree  of  what  is  limited.  The  words  or  acts  which  are  used 
by  one  man,  or  people,  or  age,  as  the  highest  expressions  of 
Divine  worship,  are  capable  of  being  used,  and  perhaps  are  ac- 
tually used,  by  others  to  express  only  some  secondary  respect  to 
creatures  :  and  what  is  only  a  trivial  ceremony  or  form  of  speech 
to  one  may  be  an  expression  of  Divine  worship  to  another.  In- 
vocations, Incense,  direct  petitions  for  temporal  and  even  spiri- 
tual blessings,  may  in  one  age  have  been  ofiered  to  God  only, 
but  in  another  may  be  offered  also  (though  in  a  different  sense,) 
to  creatures,  so  as  to  make  a  vast  increase  of  their  outward  honour; 
and  yet  there  may  remain  between  the  worship  of  Saints  so  in- 
creased or  developed  and  the  worship  proper  to  God  the  same 
absolute  difi^erence  as  before,  when  the  honour  of  the  creature 
was  confined  within  its  narrowest  limits. 

What  is  the  highest  degree  of  veneration,  love,  and  worship 
which  may  be  due  to  any  creature,  or  which  may  be  expressed 
outwardly  without  interfering  with  the  infinite  worship  of  the 
Creator,  or  what  maybe  the  highest  glory  and  worship  which 
the  Omnipotent  can  will  and  direct  to  be  given  to  the  most 
glorious  of  His  creatures,  are  speculations  beyond  our  reach. 
But  we  need  not  fear  to  say  that /or  us,  so  long  as  we  do  all  in 
proportion,  and  in  Christ,  it  is  impossible  to  exceed,  or  even  to 
go  far  enough,  in  the  love  and  worship  of  those  beings,  or  those 
things,  to  which  our  love  and  worship  are  due. 

It  has  sometimes  been  said  that  the  Greeks  and  the  Latins 
have  sought  on  principle  to  render  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  the  ut- 
most possible  worship  short  of  Divine.  And  no  doubt  her  wor- 
ship, and  even  that  of  other  Saints  (as  of  St.  Nicholas,)  has 
received  at  different  times  great  and  striking  augmentations, 
and  has  reached  a  very  high  point.     But   whatever   point   may 


AND  ESPECIALLY  OF  THE  BLESSED  VIRGIN.       249 

have  been  reached,  there  must  always  be  room  in  what  is  of  its 
own  nature  limited  for  further  addition  and  increase  :  and  it  is 
not  difficult  to  imagine  to  ourselves  very  considerable  additions 
and  developments  which  might  yet  be  made  to  the  worship  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin. 

For  assuming  that  in  and  under  Christ  the  Head  the  Bles- 
sed Virgin  is,  after  her  Assumption,  as  it  were  the  neck  of  the 
Church,  so  that  all  grace  whatever  flows  to  the  Body  through 
her,  that  is,  through  her  prayers,  it  might  be  argued  that,  for 
such  as  have  this  belief,  to  ask  anything  of  or  through  her  is 
identical  in  sense,  but  in  point  of  form  better,  than  to  ask  it  di- 
rectly of  Christ;  in  like  manner  as  to  ask  anything  of  or 
through  Christ  is  identical  in  sense,  but  clearer  and  fuller  in 
point  of  form,  than  to  ask  it  directly  of  the  Father.  And 
hence  it  might  seem  that  it  would  be  an  improvement  if,  reserving 
only  the  use  of  the  appointed  Forms  for  the  making  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, and  an  occasional  use  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  (and  this 
rather  from  respect  to  the  letter  of  their  outward  Institution 
than  from  any  inw'ard  necessity  or  propriety,)  every  prayer,  both 
of  individuals  and  of  the  Church,  were  addressed  to  or  through  St. 
Mary ;  a  form  beginning  "  Our  Lady,  which  art  in  heaven^'  &c., 
being  preferred  for  general  use  to  the  original  letter  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  ;  and  the  Psalter,  the  Te  Deum,  and  all  the  daily 
Offices,  being  used  in  preference  with  similar  accommodations. 

No  doubt  this  is  moi'e  than  has  as  yet  been  done  :  and  many 
Greeks  perhaps  and  Roman-Catholics  may  be  inclined  to  exclaim 
against  the  very  supposition  of  such  an  increase  and  develop- 
ment of  their  present  worship  of  St.  Mary  as  something  impious, 
and  shocking,  and  impossible;  just  as  now  Protestants  and  An- 
glicans exclaim  against  that  degree  of  worship  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  which  both  Greeks  and  Latins  do  actually  practise  or  al- 
low. Still,  if  such  a  change  as  we  have  been  imagining  (to  sup- 
pose it  possible  for  argument's  sake,)  were  to  come  over  the 
practical  devotions  of  the  Greek  or  the  Eoman-Catholic  Church, 
and  they  said  i\\dit  they  held  the  true  Faith  of  the  Trinity,  and 
far  from  impugning  the  one  absolute  mediation  of  Christ, 
sought  only  to  express,  and  did  express  in  fact,  more  forcibly 
their  unlimited  devotion  to  Him  through  a  higher  (yet  in  its 
nature  not  unlimited)  devotion  to  her  whose  only  value  and  emi- 


250  OF    THE     INVOCATION    AND    WORSHIP    OF    SAINTS, 

nence  lies  in  her  relutiou  to  Him,  there  would  be  no  more  strict 
force  or  accuracy  iu  the  popular  arguments  of  Protestants 
and  Anglicans  against  such  a  form  and  degree  of  worship,  than 
there  is  in  the  same  arguments  against  the  worship  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  in  its  present  stage. 

However,  it  does  not  follow  because  the  arguments  of  Protes- 
tants are  unsound,  or  because  we  should  have  no  right  to  con- 
demn others  even  if  they  went  to  lengths  hitherto  unknown  iu 
the  worship  of  Saints,  that  thei'efore  all  that  we  have  no  right 
to  condemn  is  good  in  itself,  or  in  the  sight  of  God,  or  to  be 
imitated  by  us.  On  the  contrary  it  is  confessed  on  all  hands  to 
be  quite  possible  that  they  who  say  they  are  honouring  creatures 
only  in  Christ,  may  really  be  doing  otherwise,  withdrawing 
themselves  from  Him,  speaking  lies  iu  hypocrisy  for  vanity  or 
for  gain,  deceiving  themselves  and  deceiving  others.  When  the 
ancient  Fathers  decreed  thus,  "  Let  Mary  be  honoured,  hut  let 
Christ  be  ivo7-shipped,  or  adored :"  they  clearly  contemplated  the 
possibility  of  excess.  And  St.  John  himself,  the  Apostle  of  love, 
falling  down  to  worship  in  some  undue  degree  an  Angel,  was 
reproved  thus  for  our  sake,  "  See  thou  do  it  not,  for  I  am  thy 
fellow-servant :  worship  God."  Both  Greeks  and  Latins  occa- 
sionally blame  even  things  permitted  in  their  respective  Com- 
munions as  excesses :  and  most  of  them  would  shrink,  as  has 
been  said,  from  contemplating  as  admissible  any  such  further 
development  of  the!  worship  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  as  we  have 
imagined.  And  besides  excess  in  degree,  we  can  see  that  any 
and  every  degree  of  worship  given  to  creatures,  the  lowest  de- 
gree as  well  as  the  highest,  becomes  at  once  sinful  if  the  heart 
be  not  right  with  God.  As  the  Patriarch  Jeremiah  II.  wrote  well 
to  the  Lutherans,  that  for  any  man  to  invoke  the  Saints,  if  he 
be  not  also  at  the  same  time  striving  with  all  his  heart  to  imi- 
tate their  virtues,  is  "  worse  than  useless.''  It  becomes  therefore 
a  matter  of  importance  to  consider  what  that  is  which  makes 
any  particular  form  or  degree  of  secondary  worship  to  be  legiti- 
mate and  salutary,  and  the  absence  of  which  would  make  the 
same  to  be  dangerous  and  blameable. 

This  question  is  answered  in  the  simplest  and  fullest  way  if 
we  say  that  whatever  is  from  the  Spirit  of  Christ  cither  in  the 
individual  Christian  or  in  the  Church  is  aood,  whatever  is  from 


AND  ESPECIALLY  OF  THE  BLESSED  VIRGIN.  251 

any  other  spirit  is  evil  or  unprofitable.  And  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  is  a  spirit  not  of  formal  bondage,  but  of  liberty  and  love. 
"  All  things  ore  lawful  unto  me,"  says  the  Apostle  :  and  again, 
"All  things  are  yours,  and  ije  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is 
God's.''  And  the  Spirit  is  a  law  to  itself,  and  is  not  judged  of 
thera  that  are  without :  nor  have  the  children  of  God  need  that 
any  man  should  inform  them  what  is  lawful  for  them,  and  what 
unlawful :  for  they  "  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One,  and 
know  all  things"  If  therefore  there  is  such  a  thing  as  poetry 
and  rhetoric  for  the  natural  man,  much  more  for  the  Christian  : 
and  whatever  figures  of  speech  are  allowable  in  the  world  are  no 
less  so  in  the  Church.  Or  if  any  Christian  has  from  the  Spirit 
of  God  any  sense  of  the  presence  of  an  angel  or  spirit,  as  in  a 
dream  or  vision,  or  by  a  miracle  at  Relics,  so  as  to  make  it  natu- 
ral in  him  to  speak  to  them,  or  if  he  is  moved  of  the  same 
Spirit  in  any  other  way  to  speak  to  them  as  if  they  were  sensi- 
bly present,  whatever  is  natural  to  him  to  say  or  to  do  will  be 
good  in  him  :  and  whatever  he  testifies  of  himself  to  be  so 
cannot  rightly  be  condemned  by  others,  at  least  not  by  equals. 

But  if  any  man  have  no  such  direct  personal  revelation,  inspi- 
ration, or  impulse,  prompting  him  to  speak  (otherwise  than  by 
poetical  or  rhetorical  apostrophe)  to  those  who  are  not  sensibly 
present,  he  will  then  need  a  sufficient  reasonable  proof  that  the 
belief  of  this  or  that  doctrine,  and  the  practice  of  this  or  that 
secondary  worship  to  creatures,  is  enjoined  upon  him,  or  recom- 
mended to  him  indirectly,  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

A  Protestant  therefore,  or  a  member  of  any  Church  (as  of  the 
Anglican,  or  the  Nestorian)  which  has  not  that  worship  of  Saints 
and  of  their  images  which  is  common  to  the  Latins  and  Greeks, 
cannot,  except  either  by  some  personal  inspiration  or  revelation  on 
the  one  hand,  or  by  mere  will-worship  and  private  fancy  on  the 
other,  invent,  ])ractise,  or  imitate  such  worship.  He  may  con- 
clude indeed  by  reasoning  that  it  is  probable  that  Christ  should 
have  already  accorded  such  and  such  honours  to  His  Mother,  but 
he  can  never  of  himself  advance  to  the  assertion  that  He  has  ac- 
tually done  so.  But  if  any  one  believes  in  a  visible  Catholic 
and  Apostolic  Church  as  a  Divinely  appointed  and  (in  all  essen- 
tial things  at  least)  infallible  teacher  and  guide,  and  if  this 
Church  teaches  him  to  give  any  particular  worship  to  the  Bles- 


252  OF  THE  INVOCATION  AND  WORSHIP  OF  SAINTS, 

sed  Virgin  and  other  Saints,  and  to  their  images  or  pictures, 
then  he  will  be  safe  in  doing  what  the  Holy  Ghost  through 
the  Church  teaches  him  to  do,  and  will  bless  God  for  having 
given  him,  in  addition  to  the  Sacraments  and  other  channels  of 
grace,  the  Saints,  their  Relics,  and  their  Icons,  to  be  used  as  cus- 
tom may  direct,  or  as  individual  zeal  and  piety  may  prompt.  Nor 
will  it  make  any  difference  whether  what  is  ordered  or  recom- 
mended seem  to  have  been  from  the  beginning,  or  to  be  of  later 
institution,  so  long  as  the  basis,  that  this  is  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  that  the  Church  so  teaches,  is  certain  or  undoubted.  For  the 
Church  being  to  teach  continuously,  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world,  any  difference  or  contradiction  which  may  seem  to  us  to 
exist  between  her  teaching  at  one  time  and  at  another  can  be  no 
more  than  an  intellectual  difficulty,  which  we  shall  do  very  well 
to  consider,  and  to  resolve,  if  we  can,  whether  by  a  theory  of  de- 
velopment, or  by  a  more  accurate  examination  of  facts,  or  in  any 
other  way,  but  which,  if  it  cannot  be  resolved,  ought  not  to  in- 
fluence either  our  faith  or  our  practice. 

What  then  for  the  Greek  or  the  Latin  is  the  teaching  of  the 
Catholic  Church  ?  What  does  it  require  him  to  believe  and  to  do  ? 
What  does  it  merely  encourage,  or  allow  to  individuals  or  socie- 
ties to  be  done  of  their  own  particular  devotion  or  inspiration  ? 
In  other  words,  how  far  does  the  Church  take  upon  herself  the 
responsibility  of  directing  serious  prayers  to  be  made  to  Saints, 
or  any  particular  degree  of  worship  to  be  paid  to  them  (or 
to  their  Icons  or  Relics,)  by  individuals  beyond  what  their  own 
spiritual  sense  or  inspiration  may  prompt  ? 

The  Eastern  Church  teaches  distinctly,  and  the  Latin  Church 
by  the  decree  of  Trent  makes  it  "  a  point  of  faith  "  to  be- 
lieve and  confess,  that  it  is  good  and  proiitable  to  invoke  the 
Saints  that  are  with  Christ  to  pray  with  us  and  for  us. 
But  when,  or  how,  or  in  what  sense  the  Saints  must  be  invoked  ; 
or  whether  any  individual,  not  personally  moved  thereto,  need 
invoke  them  at  all  otherwise  than  through  the  public  ritual 
of  the  Church  ;  or  in  what  ivcnj  it  profits  us  to  invoke  them  ; 
whether  by  the  Saints  actually  and  ordinarily  hearing  the 
words  addressed  to  them  and  praying  to  God  in  consequence, 
or  by  God's  communicating  to  them  our  petitions  either  ordi- 
narily or  occasionally  that  they  may  pray  for  us,  or  by  His 


AND    ESPECIALLY    OF    THE    BLESSED    VIRGIN.  253 

answering  us  Himself  for  their  sakes  as  if  they  heard  us 
and  prayed  for  us  in  consequence,  or  as  if  our  prayers  to  them 
were  only  an  indirect  form  of  prayer  to  Himself,  there  is  no 
determination  of  faith.  As  for  the  public  ritual  of  the  Eastern 
Church,  there  is  nothing  in  the  regular  Services  nor  in  the 
Offices  which  either  necessarily  or  in  its  natural  and  apparent 
sense  goes  beyond  poetical  and  rhetorical  apostrophe ;  nothing 
which  is  directed  to  be  said  by  the  Priest  or  Deacon  as  a  prose 
prayer;  nothing  which  is  not  in  its  structure  and  origin  plainly 
poetical,  and  directed  to  be  sung  by  the  Singers  to  such  or  such 
a  "  Tone,"  except  one  rather  long  address  beginning  ""AdTuXs, 
aiio><.vvTc-"  at  the  end  of  the  '^ttoSeittvov,  which  has  indeed  the 
form  of  a  prayer,  and  is  to  be  said  by  the  Reader.*  But  this, 
besides  being  in  its  wording  highly  rhetorical,  is  to  be  said  to 
the  Blessed  Virgin  as  represented  by  her  picture  :  and  its  in- 
troduction into  the  ritual  had  respect  to  the  controversy  with 
the  Iconoclasts.  It  is  certain  however  historically  that  the 
Eastern  Church  in  teaching  that  it  is  good  and  profitable  to  in- 
voke the  Saints  meant  not  only  to  defend  as  sacred  poetry  those 
apostrophes  which  might  occur  in  her  hymns,  but  also  to 
sanction  the  practice  common  among  Christians  of  seriously 
calling  upon  the  Saints  to  help  them  whenever  they  were  moved  to 
do  so  by  any  particular  association;  and  of  affixing  to  the  poetical 
invocations  contained  in  the  hymns  of  the  Church,  whenever 
and  in  whatever  degree  they  were  moved  to  do  so,  a  similar 
sense  of  reality. 

*  The  two  other  short  addresses  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  "  r-irepevSo^e,"  k.t.A. 
and  "  TV  iraffw  iXiriSa  "  k.t.\.  which  follow  in  the  same  place,  and  are  said  hy 
the  Reader  turning  to  the  Icon  in  the  same  way,  are  properly  anthems  called 
QeordKia,  and  elsewhere  (in  the  MeaovvKTiK6i')  appear  as  such,  with  the  "  Tone  " 
to  which  they  are  to  be  sung.  At  the  end  of  the  Prayers  and  Thanksgivings  after 
Communion  commonly  printed  in  the  'n.poA6yiov  there  is  one  "  'Avaivvixov  els  t^iv 
'Tirepayiav  QsotSkou"  beginning  "  Uavayia  Aiffiroiva'^'  and  at  the  end  of  the 
Kavwu  or  Set  of  Hymns  to  the  Angel  Guardian  there  is  a  Prayer  beginning  ""A7J6 
"AYYeXe."  In  the  more  modern  Slavonic  Kan6ns  or  '' Molebens,"  such  a 
Prayer  often  occurs  at  the  end,  and  the  Bishop  or  chief  officiating  Priest  says  it, 
he  himself  and  all  present  with  him  kneeling  on  their  knees,  a  custom  probably 
imitated  in  Little  Russia  from  the  Uniats  and  the  Latins.  Various  little  manuals 
of  devotion  printed  in  modern  Greek  at  Venice  and  elsewhere  contain  Prayers  to 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  to  the  Angel  Guardian,  and  other  Angels  and  Saints,  and 
even  to  things  inanimate,  as  the  Cross,  in  which  poetry,  rhetoric,  meditation, 
and  serious  prayer  are  all  confusedly  blended  together. 


254  or    THK    INVOCATION    AND    WOHSHIP    OF    SAINTS, 

Thus  the  principle  of  the  Invocation  and  worship  of  Saints 
(as  also  of  the  worship  of  their  Images  or  Pictures  and  Relics,) 
is  taught :  but  for  all  details  and  consequences  of  the  particular 
application  of  the  principle  the  Church  does  not  make  herself 
responsible.  Beyond  the  use  of  the  public  ritual  she  prescribes 
nothing.  She  throws  back  the  responsibility  of  every  assertion 
and  of  every  act  beyond  what  she  requires  on  the  individuals  or 
communities  with  which  they  originate,  granting  them  however 
a  general  encouragement  so  far  as  she  has  no  reason  to  deny  what 
they  testify  concerning  themselves,  or  concerning  matters  of  fact. 
Hence  there  has  arisen  in  respect  of  the  worship  of  Saints,  their 
Images,  and  Relics,  a  vast  popular  growth  of  particular  opinions 
and  devotions,  differing  in  different  individuals,  communities, 
ages,  and  countries,  as  to  which  it  is  difficult  to  say  how  far 
when  once  introduced  they  do  or  do  not  belong  to  the  Church 
herself,  or  claim  more  than  a  passive  respect  from  such  in- 
dividuals as  have  no  personal  inspiration  or  persuasion  in  their 
favour.  For  on  the  one  hand  when  the  hierarchy  renders 
homage  to  any  popular  or  local  belief,  allowing  it  to  be  alluded 
to  or  recognized  in  the  ritual,  and  sanctioning  particular  devo- 
tions, it  may  seem  too  subtle  a  distinction  to  say  that  it 
leaves  the  responsibility  of  asserting  and  teaching  the  matter  of 
fact  (for  example,  the  miracle,  vision,  or  revelation,)  to  those 
with  whom  it  originated ;  or  that  it  does  not  teach  by  the 
ritual  which  it  authorizes  as  well  as  by  its  more  formal  decrees. 
And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  conduct  of  the  Church  in  allow- 
ing to  individuals  and  to  communities  particular  beliefs  and  devo- 
tions is  no  more  than  what  every  Christian,  as  we  have  seen 
above,  is  in  reason  and  charity  bound  to  do  towards  his  neigh- 
bours, so  long  as  the  individual  or  the  community  professing 
any  particular  belief,  or  practising  any  particular  devotion,  pro- 
fess to  hold  the  true  faith  of  the  Trinity,  and  to  do  whatever 
they  do  for  sufficient  reasons  of  their  own,  and  all  in  Christ. 
And  certainly  it  is  held  both  by  Greeks  and  by  Latins  alike  that 
the  mere  admission  of  any  assertion  or  opinion  into  the  ritual 
is  no  proof  that  it  is  deliberately  taught  by  the  Church.  It  is 
held  too  that  matters  of  fad  are  in  their  own  nature  beyond 
the  sphere  of  the  Church's  authority;  so  that  they  must  rest, 
with  all  that  is  built  upon  them,  upon  credible  proof  or  testi- 
monv.     And  we   see  that   the  ritual  of  the  Church  has   varied 


AND  ESPECIALLY  OF  THE  BLESSED  VIRGIN.      255 

much  in  different  ages  and  countries :  and  that  vast  changes  in 
matters  of  belief  and  feeling  and  habit  take  place  silently  and 
imperceptibly  among  Christians,  so  that  what  is  unknown  in 
one  age  becomes  a  main  point  of  religion  in  another ;  and  what 
it  might  cost  a  Sovereign  his  throne  to  disregard  in  one  age 
comes  to  be  disregarded  by  all  who  please  in  another.  One 
Saint,  or  one  devotion,  rises  from  obscure  beginnings  to  an  in- 
credible height  of  popularity.  Again,  some  generations  pass, 
and  Saints  who  were  in  everybody's  mouth,  and  without  whose 
help  nothing  could  be  obtained,  are  half  forgotten,  and  new 
intercessors  are  celebrated  in  their  stead. 

Seeing  the  prevalence  and  strength  of  many  particular  beliefs 
and  devotions,  the  importance  attached  to  them,  the  zeal  with 
which  they  are  preached  by  men  of  energy  and  seeming  holi- 
ness, the  strong  assertions  of  supernatural  revelations,  commands 
or  encouragements,  and  miracles,  on  which  they  are  often  based, 
or  by  which  they  are  recommended,  an  individual  may  well  in- 
quire how  far  he  ought  or  ought  not  to  throw  himself  into  the 
belief  and  practice  of  others,  beyond  what  the  Church  requires, 
and  without  having  within  himself  any  such  particular  inspira- 
tion or  assurance  for  the  things  recommended,  as  may  be  alleged 
to  justify  them  in  others. 

With  respect  to  this  it  may  seem  to  some  that  to  keep 
guardedly  within  the  letter  of  the  Church's  requirements  is 
scarcely  compatible  with  a  sincere  and  loyal  obedience  to  those 
requirements  themselves  :  that  it  must  be  safe  and  pious  to 
imitate  and  appropriate  (though,  it  may  be,  with  a  certain  sense 
of  unreality  at  first,  if  one  has  not  been  trained  to  it  from  a 
child,)  whatever  respected  individuals,  or  societies,  or  dominant 
opinion  and  feeling  among  religious  people  urges  us  (with  the 
allowance  or  favour  of  the  hierarchy)  to  adopt,  trusting  to  the 
testimony  of  others  for  its  lawfulness  and  profitableness.  To 
others  it  may  seem  on  the  contrary  that  it  is  not  the  same 
thing  to  follow  teaching  merely  allowed  by  the  Church  as  to 
follow  the  teaching  of  the  Church  herself:  and  that  as  the 
teacher  who  teaches  of  himself,  by  permission  only,  or  it  may 
be  with  encouragement,  so  he  who  listens  to  and  follows  such  a 
teacher,  by  permission  only,  or  it  may  be  with  encouragement, 
must  bear  his  own  responsibility.  And  though  no  Christian  may 
condemn  either  the  teacher  or  the  hearer  of  doctrine  which  the 


25G  OF  THE   INVOCATION  AND  WORSHIP  OF  SAINTS, 

Church  allows,  nor  make  himself  a  judge  of  others,  yet  neither 
is  the  feeling  or  belief  of  others,  nor  even  their  assertion  of 
having  received  direct  revelations  or  miraculous  favours,  any 
sufficient  basis  upon  which  to  adopt  new  devotions  for  himself. 
And  with  regard  to  the  whole  popular  system  of  Saint-worship 
and  Image-worship,  it  may  appear  in  two  contrary  lights  to 
different  minds.  To  some  it  may  seem  that  the  close  parallel- 
ism existing  between  it  and  the  old  polytheism  or  hero-worship 
and  idolatry  of  the  heathens,  far  from  being  an  objection,  is  a 
sign  that  it  has  grown  up  by  the  will  of  God  and  by  the  inspi- 
ration of  the  Holy  Spirit,  For  all  false  religion  being  but  a 
perversion  and  misrepresentation  of  the  true,  it  may  seem  ante- 
cedently probable  that  the  corruption  of  the  early  Patriarchal 
religion  and  worship  should  exhibit  a  certain  perverse  and  dia- 
bolical mimicry  of  that  true  and  perfect  religion  into  which  the 
early  Patriarchal  religion  and  worship  was  in  time  to  be  de- 
veloped. And  it  may  be  thought  a  triumph  worthy  of  God,  that 
He  should  accord  to  the  servants  and  witnesses  of  the  Crucified, 
and  above  all  to  The  Woman,  the  INIother  of  the  promised  Seed, 
an  exaltation,  and  glory,  and  power,  and  worship,  and  deifica- 
tion, far  eclipsing  the  honours  suggested  by  evil  spirits,  or 
imagined  by  corrupt  men,  for  the  dremons  of  the  heathen 
Olympus.  To  others  on  the  contrary  it  may  appear  that  the 
worship  of  the  Saints  and  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  of  their 
Images  or  Pictures,  grew  up  not  in  those  earliest  and  best  times 
"  when  the  Church  was  as  yet  a  pure  virgin,"  but  in  later  times, 
from  a  mixed  and  corrupted  Christian  society  :  that  the  stages 
of  its  development  correspond  not  with  any  growth  of  fervour 
in  imitating  the  Saints,  but  with  a  gradual  cooling  down  and 
declension  from  their  standard  :  that  the  best  motive  of  those 
who  popularized  it  seems  to  have  been  to  arrest  by  an  effort  the 
decay  of  piety,  and  to  influence  by  lower  and  more  human 
feelings  souls  no  longer  capable  of  relishing  higher  and  more 
divine :  that  its  characteristics  are  poetical  and  rhetorical  effo7't 
and  unreality,  contrasting  sensibly  with  the  thrilling  simplicity 
and  reality  of  the  Apostolic  age  :  and  that  the  responsibility  of 
voluntarily  taking  part  in  a  system  not  imposed  upon  us  by  any 
authority,  but  of  gradual  and  popular  growth,  and  lying  be- 
yond the  formal  teaching  of  the  existing  Church,  is  greatly 
increased  if  we  perceive  in  the   same   system  a  close  parallel 


AND  ESPECIALLY  OF  THE  BLESSED  VIRGIN.      257 

with  the  details  of  heathen  superstition,  dsemonolatry,  and 
idolatry,  in  all  their  varieties  and  ramifications. 

Historically,  the  stages  of  the  growth  of  the  worship  of  the 
Saints  and  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  more  especially  in  the  Eas- 
tern Church,  seem  to  have  been  as  follows  : 

In  the  Revelation  of  St.  John  the  Divine  an  Angel  in  the 
heavenly  sanctuary  is  represented  as  offering  from  a  golden 
censer  much  incense  "  by  the  prayers  of  all  saints '';  and  the  smoke 
of  the  incense  is  said  to  ascend  up  before  God  "  by  the  prayers  of 
the  saints  "  (Sta  tcuv  izpos-iv^itv  t«jv  dyiaji)  out  of  the  Angel's 
hand.  And  in  another  place  the  souls  of  the  Martyrs  are  seen 
under  the  heavenly  altar,  and  are  represented  not  as  uncon- 
scious and  inactive,  but  as  full  of  energy,  crying  with  a  loud 
voice,  and  longing  for  the  final  vengeance  upon  the  wicked,  and 
for  the  consummation  of  the  bliss  of  the  righteous.  (Rev.  viii. 
3,4;  and  vi.  9,  10,  II.) 

Now  whether  the  figures  in  the  visions  of  the  Apocalypse 
were  taken  from  the  Christian  worship,  or  the  Christian  worship 
of  the  Apostolic  age  was  taken  in  some  points  from  the  figures 
of  the  Apocalypse,  or  both  were  simultaneously  from  the  same 
divine  patterns,  it  matters  nothing  to  inquire.  But  we  find 
that  in  the  Liturgy  of  the  primitive  Christians  at  the  most 
solemn  moment,  after  the  Consecration,  there  was  a  prayer  to 
God  .to  receive  their  sacrifice  by  the  prayers  of  His  Saints,  and 
also  by  the  ministry  of  Angels.  This  is  expressly  mentioned 
by  St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  in  his  Catechetical  Lectures,  in  the 
fourth  century. 

At  the  same  time  we  find  in  panegyrical  Sermons  direct 
apostrophes  to  Martyrs  and  other  Saints,  sometimes  with  such 
hypothetical  qualifications  as  "  5«  tij  aTo-^rjo-j^,''  and  the  like, 
showing  that  they  were  not  meant  in  any  strict  sense,  and  that 
the  Saints  were  not  as  yet  commonly  addressed,  as  if  they  heard, 
with  serious  prose  prayers.  The  same  appears  also  from  the  use 
made  against  the  Arians  of  this  argument,  that  Christ  must 
be  God  because  He  was  invoked ;  and  from  the  imputation  of 
idolatry  to  them  because,  making  Him  to  be  only  a  creature, 
they  yet  invoked  Him,  whereas  invocation  or  prayer  belongs 
only  to  God,  Nor  is  it  any  sufficient  answer,  that  by  the  word 
"  invocation "   (sTr/xXyjo-ij)  in  such  passages   of    the   Fathers  is 

s 


258  OF    THE    INVOCATION    AND    WORSHIP    OP    SAINTS, 

meant  only  proper^  absolute,  and  final  invocation  or  prayer,  as 
distinct  from  invocation  in  a  secondary  sense  :  any  more  than 
it  is  a  sufficient  explanation  of  those  passages  in  which  early 
Fathers  reject  images  and  image-worship,  to  say  that  they  mean 
only  pagan  images  and  Divine  worship.  The  distinction  in 
both  cases  may  be  just ;  but  it  seems  clear  that  the  customs  of 
invoking  Saints  and  venerating  images  in  that  sense  in  which 
they  came  afterwards  to  be  distinguished  and  approved  could 
not  well  have  existed  as  yet,  nor  even  have  been  mentally  con- 
templated by  the  Fathers  who  so  wrote. 

Besides  rhetorical  apostrophes,  from  the  fourtli  century  at  the 
latest,  but  probably  earlier.  Hymns  (that  is,  rpoTtapia  and  cnt^Yipa,) 
to  be  sung  in  the  Vespers  and  Matins  began  to  be  composed  in 
honour  of  the  Martyrs  :  and  in  these  hymns  addresses,  and  in- 
vocations, and  personifications,  were  used,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
with  all  that  freedom  and  with  all  that  variety  of  form  which  is 
natural  to  poetry. 

At  the  same  time  we  find  occasional  miracles  and  graces  of 
healing  vouchsafed  at  the  tombs  and  Relics  of  Martyrs ;  and 
Christians  in  consequence  flocking  to  them,  and  asking  their 
aid  by  spontaneous  fervent  ejaculations  and  prayers,  with  a 
feeling  of  their  being  in  some  sense  present,  or  capable  of 
hearing,  caused  partly  by  the  actual  presence  of  their  Relics,  and 
partly  by  the  association  of  miracles  or  visions  already  connected 
with  the  same. 

Any  one  can  see  that  if  a  hymn  containing  apostrophes  were 
composed  to  be  sung  at  the  anniversary  festival  of  any  Martyr, 
and  were  so  sung  at  first  merely  as  sacred  poetry,  to  stir  up  the 
minds  of  Christians  present,  and  to  glorify  God  in  His  Saints, 
the  invocations  contained  in  such  a  hymn  would  necessarily  ac- 
quire a  new  emphasis  so  soon  as  any  miracle  was  accorded,  or 
was  believed  to  have  been  accorded,  on  the  spot.  Thenceforth  it 
would  be  impossible  to  sing  them,  or  to  hear  them  sung  there, 
without  a  sense  of  some  mysterious  reality  attaching  to  them,  as 
if  the  Martyr  or  Saint  addressed  were  actually  present  to  hear. 

And  from  such  a  sense  of  any  Martyr  being  in  a  manner  pre- 
sent, and  in  some  way  hearing  and  answering  addresses  made 
to  him,  at  those  places  where  his  tomb  or  Relics  were  preserved 
and  honoured,  a  similar  sense  would  come  to  attach  by  associa- 


AND  ESPECIALLY  OF  THE  BLESSED  VIRGIN.  259 

tion  to  the  same  hymn  or  to  similar  hymns  in  his  honour  where- 
ever  sung,  and  to  ejaculations  and  prayers  wherever  uttered. 
And  the  same  thing  having  taken  place  at  once  at  many  differ- 
ent "  Memorise  ^^  of  different  Martyrs,  the  popular  impression 
and  feeling  thence  arising  would  run  together,  and  gathering 
fresh  strength  from  all  fresh  accumulations  of  real  or  reputed 
miracles  and  visions,  would  form  at  length  a  general  idea  and 
tradition  that  the  spirits  of  departed  Saints  either  actually  hear 
or  know  by  revelation  when  they  arc  invoked  ;  and  that  if  any 
man  invokes  them  with  a  right  faith  in  God,  and  with  a  pious 
mind,  this  is  agreeable  to  God,  and  many  benefits  may  thus  be 
obtained  of  God  through  Christ  our  Saviour. 

After  the  honour  and  invocation  of  the  Martyrs,  there  grew 
up  that  of  the  Confessors  and  other  Saints  :  and  last  of  all,  as  if 
from  a  sense  of  consistency  and  logical  propriety,  after  the  he- 
resies relating  to  the  Incarnation  had  been  condemned  and  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  defined,  the  worship  of  the  Mother  of 
God  rose  upon  the  Church,  like  the  moon  rising  into  a  sky  al- 
ready studded  with  stars,  which  from  thenceforth,  though  still 
bright  and  visible,  became  as  nothing  compared  with  the  greater 
and  more  splendid  luminary. 

The  introduction  of  Icons  or  pictures  to  render  present  as  it 
were  in  the  churches  the  Saints  and  Angels  who  are  not  present 
to  the  senses,  and  the  practice  of  singing  hymns  containing  in- 
vocations  or  reciting  addresses  before  the  Picture,  as  if  to  the 
Angel  or  Saint  himself  who  was  represented  by  it,  heightened  still 
further  the  sense  of  reality  already  popularly  attached  to  the 
poetical  addresses  of  the  Church  Hymns.  And  lastly,  the  occa- 
sional substitution  of  the  rapid  perfunctory  reading  of  particu- 
lar Kanons  or  strings  of  hymns  instead  of  singing  them  (when 
such  compositions  were  multiplied,  and  the  monastic  Services 
had  reached  their  full  length,)  begot  a  more  prosaic  and  matter 
of  fact,  though  unspiritual,  idea  of  the  profitableness  of  the  in- 
vocation and  worship  of  the  Saints.  And  when  such  rapid 
perfunctory  reading  came  to  be  the  ordinary  practice  in  many 
cases,  the  reading  of  a  string  of  hymns  containing  addresses 
would  not  differ  perceptibly  from  the  recital  before  the  Icon  of 
a  long  prose  prayer  full  of  poetical  warmth  and  rhetorical  ver- 
biage, such  as  is  actually  recited  in  one  or  two  instances  in  the 

s  2 


2G0  OF  THE  INVOCATION  AND  WORSHIP  OF  SAINTS. 

present  Greek  ritual,  and  at  the  end  of  "  Molebcns/'  or  Flupu- 
x\r)(TSig,  in  the  Russian. 

At  this  point  the  public  practice  and  ritual  of  the  Easterns 
stops  shortj  and  seems  either  to  have  outgrown  perfection  or  to 
have  not  yet  reached  it.  For  if  on  the  one  hand  it  is  best  that 
the  invocations  contained  in  the  public  ritual  should  go  no  fur- 
ther than  sacred  poetry,  as  was  the  case  for  centuries,  then  the 
rapid  perfunctory  reading  of  strings  of  hymns  as  if  they  were  prose, 
instead  of  singing  them,  and  the  addition  of  one  or  two  rhetorical 
prose  prayers,  is  a  corruption  and  abuse ;  and  the  superabun- 
dance of  the  hymns  themselves  would  seem  to  need  retrenchment. 
But  if  on  the  other  hand  it  is  desirable  that  the  public  ritual 
should  distinctly  inculcate  and  reduce  to  practice  the  popular 
belief  that  an  indefinite  experimental  worship  of  the  Saints  (as 
also  of  their  Icons  and  Relics,)  is  a  Divinely  appointed  channel 
of  grace,  then  it  would  seem  a  desirable  improvement  to  drop  or 
curtail  the  older  and  now  obsolete  poetical  forms,  so  far  as  they 
have  come  to  be  read  or  gabbled  over  as  prose,  and  to  substitute 
for  them  shorter  and  direct  prose  Prayers  and  Litanies,  to  be  bid- 
den by  the  Priest  or  Deacon,  after  the  manner  of  the  Latins.  For 
the  Offices  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  now  used  by  the  Latins  con- 
tain short  and  terse  prayers  to  her ;  and  their  Litanies  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  and  the  Saints  are  more  suggestive  of  the  idea 
of  serious  prai/er  than  are  the  Acathists  and  Kanons  of  the 
Greeks,  both  from  their  structure  being  less  plainly  poetical, 
and  because  of  the  kneeling  posture  in  which  they  are  often  said 
or  sung;  and  because  the  petitions  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  to 
the  Saints  are  conjoined  with  and  follow  immediately  after  those 
to  the  Trinity,  with  which  they  correspond  in  form  :  also  be- 
cause of  the  way  in  which  they  are  often  altered  and  adapted 
from  those  parts  of  the  ritual  which  are  addressed  to  God,  so 
as  to  suggest  the  idea  of  a  purposed  parallelism  of  prayer ;  as  is 
the  case  with  the  Offices  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  corresponding 
to  the  greater  public  Offices,  the  accommodation  of  the  Psalter, 
the  Te  Deum,  &c.,  the  imitations  of  the  Collects,  the  "  Domina, 
ad  orationem  meam  infende  ;"  &c.  The  view  which  any  one  may 
take  of  this  matter  will  probably  depend  in  great  measure  upon 
the  favour  or  disfavour  with  which  he  may  regard  the  theory  of 
Doctrinal  Development. 


DISSERTATION   XVIII. 

OF    THE    WORSHIP    OR   VENERATION    OF    ICONS    AND    RELICS. 

The  objections  made  by  ProtestaDts  and  by  Anglicans  against 
the  veneration  of  Icons  or  Pictures  and  of  Helics  resemble  so 
closely  those  made  against  the  worship  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
and  the  Saints,  that  the  worship  of  Saints,  Icons,  and  Relics, 
may  for  purposes  of  Controversy  be  regarded  as  three  parts  of 
one  and  the  same  subject. 

Against  Images  or  Pictures  (for  it  may  be  conceded  that  there 
is  no  valid  distinction  between  the  two,)  the  objection  commonly 
first  urged  is  this,  that  the  Second  Commandment  forbids  us  to 
make  or  to  have  them.  To  which  it  is  enough  to  reply  that 
the  objectors  themselves  both  make  and  have  them  freely ;  and 
so  show  that  they  do  not  really  and  seriously  understand  them 
to  be  forbidden  by  the  Second  Commandment. 

Next  they  say  that,  granting  it  lawful  to  make  and  to  have 
them,  it  is  forbidden  us  to  "  worship,"  that  is,  to  honour  them. 
To  which  the  answer  is  as  before,  that  all  Protestants  also,  not 
merely  by  the  use  of  a  lawful  liberty,  but  by  the  necessity  of 
human  nature,  give  honour  and  dishonour  to  such  pictures  and 
images  as  they  have  or  see ;  and  not  to  pictures  and  images 
only,  but  to  everything  else  which  carries  with  it  to  their  minds 
any  relative  association  with  good  or  with  evil. 

Next  they  say  that,  granting  it  lawful  to  make  and  to  have, 
and  natural  and  unavoidable  to  honour  relatively  all  things  which 
carry  with  them  any  association  worthy  of  honour,  still  such 
honour  may  not  be  expressed  outwardly,  nor  its  expression  made 
a  matter  of  public  custom.  And  the  answer  is  again  that  Pro- 
testants also,  when  not  thinking  of  religious  controversy,  make 
.no  scruple  to  express  outwardly  such  feelings  of  inward  honour 


263  OF    THE    WORSHIP    OR   VENERATION 

or  affection  as  they  entertain,  nor  to  conform  to  any  social  cus- 
tom of  expressing  such  honour  which  they  may  find  anywhere 
established. 

Next  they  say  that,  even  though  they  abandon  the  three  pre- 
ceding objections  and  confess  that  holy  things  as  well  as  holy 
persons  are  to  be  honoured,  still  the  honour  given  them  must 
not  be  "  religious  honour."  But  this  is  mere  verbal  trilling. 
For  the  nature  of  the  honour  does  not  depend  on  our  will,  but 
on  the  nature  of  the  thing  that  is  honoured.  A  token,  or  pic- 
ture, or  statue,  which  brings  to  men's  minds  some  political 
achievement  will  be  honoured  of  course  with  a  civil  honour  : 
that  which  recalls  some  object  of  natural  affection  will  be 
honoured  v*  ith  an  honour  of  natural  affection :  and  that  which 
is  associated  with  any  object  of  religious  love  or  reverence  will 
receive  a  corresponding  religious  honour.  To  say  that  we  may 
have  pictures  and  other  objects  connected  by  association  with 
holy  persons  and  holy  things,  with  the  House  and  worship  of 
Almighty  God,  and  may  honour  them,  but  not  with  a  religious 
honour,  is  no  more  reasonable  than  to  say  that  one  may  have 
the  picture  of  his  parent,  and  may  honour  it,  but  not  with  an 
emotion  of  filial  affection. 

Another  form  of  the  same  unreasonable  prejudice  is  exhibited 
by  those  who  say  that  pictures  or  images  may  be  had  indeed  and 
honoured  with  such  honour  as  naturally  belongs  to  their  origi- 
nals, but  then  this  must  not  be  "  in  the  church  J'  As  if  the  arts 
might  freely  be  used  by  men  for  their  own  pleasures  and  vani- 
ties, but  were  inadmissible  in  that  higher  sphere  of  religion  from 
whence  alone  all  things  belonging  to  the  lower  spheres  of  public 
and  private  life  receive  their  sanctification. 

There  is  more  apparent  force  in  the  objection  that  the  custom 
of  paying  an  outward  reverence  to  pictures  or  images  was  un- 
known to  the  Church  of  the  first  ages,  and  that  divers  of  the 
Fathers  in  inveighing  against  heathen  idols  use  such  general 
and  absolute  expressions  as  show  that  they  neither  knew  of  any 
Christian  use  or  worship  of  images,  nor  contemplated  any  such 
thing  as  compatible  with  Christianity.  Still  this  objection  also 
on  closer  examination  vanishes.  For  firstly,  even  though  a  man 
admit  not  the  idea  of  any  positive  development  of  the  faith  it- 
self, still  in  secondary  matters  of  discipline  and  ritual  (such  as 


OF    ICONS    AND    RELICS.  263 

this  is,)  he  must  admit  that  the  outward  form  of  Christianity 
may  vary  according  to  varying  circumstances.  And  if  so,  it  is 
unreasonable  to  expect  in  the  Christians  of  any  particular  age  such 
a  degree  of  speculative  foresight  as  shall  contemplate  distinctly 
all  future  phases  of  Orthodox  Christianity  which  may  differ  in 
some  respects  from  their  own  :  or  to  make  a  difficulty  of  the 
fact,  that  Christians  living  under  certain  peculiar  circumstances 
may  have  expressed  themselves  so  as  to  show  that  they  did  not 
look  beyond  them,  nor  calculate  the  possible  effect  of  contrary 
circumstances.  Now  in  the  primitive  Church,  composed  partly 
of  Hebrew  converts,  to  whom  it  had  been  a  religious  tradition 
to  make  no  likeness  of  any  hving  creature,  and  partly  of  con- 
verts from  the  heathen,  whose  worship  of  images  was  the  special 
abomination  distinguishing  them  from  the  Jews  and  Christians, 
there  was  certainly  nothing  to  suggest  the  idea  that  image-wor- 
ship under  any  form  would  one  day  be  discovered  to  be  conge- 
nial to  orthodoxy.  Nor  was  the  condition  of  the  Christians, 
their  poverty,  the  smallness  of  their  churches,  the  secresy  of 
their  assemblies,  under  persecution,  in  private  dwellings,  or  in 
catacombs,  at  all  favourable  to  the  development  of  an  external 
ritual.  At  any  rate,  the  circumstances  of  the  Church  so  long 
as  she  was  in  conflict  with  pagan  idolatry  supply  a  very  sufficient 
explanation  of  the  fact  that  she  did  not  as  yet  originate  or  con- 
template any  analogous  Christian  system  of  her  own.  But  when 
Christianity  had  triumphed,  and  was  now  clearly  distinguished 
for  ever  from  that  system  which  it  had  combated  without  truce 
and  which  it  had  totally  destroyed,  a  number  of  new  things 
scarcely  contemplated  as  possible  before,  but  contained  in  germ 
within  the  Church,  were  visibly  manifested.  Emperors  and 
nations,  as  such,  came  to  stand  in  the  same  relation  to  the 
Church  and  to  the  Christian  Clergy,  as  they  had  formerly  stood 
in  to  heathenism  and  the  heathen  priesthood.  Endowments  in 
money,  houses,  and  lands,  accrued  to  the  Church,  as  before  to 
the  heathen  temples.  Great  and  magnificent  churches  were 
built  from  the  same  motives  of  zeal,  policy,  or  vanity  as  had 
prompted  the  erection  of  the  most  celebrated  edifices  of  pa- 
ganism. And  when  these  had  been  built,  there  were  the  same 
motives  for  adorning  them  in  the  spirit  of  the  new  religion. 
The  worship  of  the  true  God,  emerging  from  the  catacombs  and 


2G4  OF    THE    WORSHIP    OR    VENERATION 

other  hiding-places,  expanded  into  a  complex  and  attractive 
ritual  from  causes  analogous  to  those  which  had  produced  the 
ceremonial  which  it  supplanted.  Under  these  circumstances, 
idolatry  being  now  clean  swept  away,  and  no  longer  occupying  the 
mind,  it  was  inevitable  that  in  due  time  the  question  should 
come  up  whether  the  application  of  the  arts  of  painting  and 
sculpture  to  the  service  of  religion,  considered  abstractedly  and 
in  itself,  was  lawful  or  forbidden.  And  nothing  but  a  general 
positive  tradition  that  it  was  forbidden  could  prevent  those  arts 
from  obtaining  their  natural  place  in  connection  with  the 
Christian  ritual.  But  the  general  positive  tradition  existing 
among  Christians  was  precisely  the  reverse.  Sacred  sculptures 
and  paintings  had  been  known  among  them,  both  in  private 
dwellings  and  in  places  frequented  for  worship,  from  the  very 
beginning.  And  the  very  same  Fathers,  who  from  not  knowing 
nor  contemplating  any  ritual  custom  of  reverencing  Christian 
Icons  seem  in  words  to  condemn  all  image-worship  of  whatever 
kind,  allude  nevertheless  to  the  existence  among  the  brethren  of 
gems  and  cups  with  sacred  symbols  and  representations  cut  upon 
them,  and  of  sculptures,  pictures,  and  frescoes  about  the  tombs 
and  "  Memorise  "  of  the  Martyrs,  and  of  other  Christians  de- 
ceased. And  such  incidental  mentions  or  allusions  are  by  no  means 
accompanied  by  any  expressions  of  reprobation,  but  quite  the 
contrary.  It  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  in  the  earliest  times  these 
things  were  not  everywhere  equally  common  :  and  while  in  some 
places  walls  of  churches  and  catacombs  were  already  painted  with 
frescoes,  and  tombs  or  sarcophagi  were  sculptured  with  human 
figures,  m  other  places  a  holy  Bishop  may  have  torn  down  from 
the  church  doors  a  veil  which  had  a  figure  painted  or  worked 
upon  it,  or  a  local  Council  may  have  forbidden  to  paint  the  walls 
of  churches  with  objects  of  reverence  or  adoration.  But  enough 
remains  to  prove  that  when  the  question  was  first  publicly 
moved  there  existed  no  general  sense  or  tradition  received  from 
the  beginning  that  the  use  of  sculpture  and  painting  in  connec- 
tion with  religion  was  unlawful,  or  that  Christians  were  bound, 
like  the  Jews,  by  the  letter  of  the  Second  Commandment. 

Christians  then,  both  having  and  making  sacred  representa- 
tions, must  undoubtedly  also  have  honoured  them  with  such 
honour  as  belonged   to    them,   as   has  been   said  above;    and 


OF    ICONS    AND    RELICS.  265 

must  have  expressed  that  honour  even  outwardly  whenever  the 
occasion  prompted,  just  as  all  men  express  outwardly,  whenever 
the  occasion  prompts,  their  inward  feelings  of  honour  or  affec- 
tion, contempt  or  aversion. 

It  was  not  till  Pictures  in  the  possession  of  private  persons 
began   to   be   made   much  of  and  to  be  talked  about,  and  in- 
dividuals began  to  show  them  an  outward  honour  beyond  that 
prompted  by  incidental  emotion,  making  a  custom  of  kissing 
them,  and  of  lighting  lights  before   them,    that    some  of  the 
Fathers  take  notice  of  this,  and   rather  blame  it  as  a  weakness 
and  superstition,  not  by  any  means  as  heresy  or  idolatry.     And 
this,  so  long  as  it  was  as  yet  a  mere  private  custom  of  individuals, 
may  have  been  indeed   a  weakness  :  but  when  once  it  had  been 
adopted  into  the  ceremonial  of  the  Church  it  was  a   weakness 
no  longer.     For  then  it  became  a  matter  of  ordinary  obedience 
and  conformity ;  and  it  would  have  been   a  weakness,  or  rather 
a  pernicious  rebelhon,  to  reject  it.     After  long  and  violent  con- 
troversies, caused  partly  by  the  novelty  of  the  ritual  custom  and 
by  a  plausible  scruple  on  account  of  its  outward   similarity  to 
heathenism  (perhaps  also  by  a  Manichsean  aversion   for  bodily 
forms,)  partly  by  the  coexistence  of  contrary  habits  and  disposi- 
tions on  this  subject  in  different  parts  of  the  Church,  but  most 
of  all  by  the  personal  partizanship  of  the  Emperors  of  Constan- 
tinople, it  was   determined  by  the  whole  East  and  by  the  chief 
authority  in  the  West  (the  rest  of  the  Westerns   also  gradually 
acquiescing,)  that  it  is  good  and  profitable  both  for  individuals 
and  for  the   Church  to  show  outwardly  to  the   Icons   of  our 
Lord,  His  Blessed  Mother,  and   the  Saints,  as  well  as  to    other 
sacred  things,  that  relative  honour  and  veneration  which  belongs 
to  them  in  virtue  of  their  associations  :  in  like  manner  as  it  had 
from  old  time  been  customary  to  show  such  honour  to  the  Cross, 
the  Gospels,  the  doors  of  the   church,  the  rim  of  the  altar,  the 
Priest's  hand,  the  vestments  of  the  clergy,  and  all  other  holy 
things  and  vessels  connected  with  the  worship  of  God  and  with 
the  persons  or  memory  of  His  Saints. 

Assent  to  this  general  principle,  and  conformity  to  those 
ritual  customs  which  have  been  based  upon  it,  is  all  that  the 
Eastern  Church  requires  of  her  members.  For  any  further  and 
more  particular  application  of  the  principle  in  practice  she  leaves 


266  OF    THE    WORSHIP    OR    VENERATION 

individuals  and  societies  to  their  own  responsibility^  according  to 
them  only  a  general  encouragement  so  far  as  she  has  no  reason 
to  deny,  nor  is  able  to  disprove,  what  they  may  assert  concern- 
ing any  supernatural  facts  or  inspirations. 

Yet  on  this  subject,  as  on  that  of  the  worship  and  invocation 
of  Saints,  the  bare  statement  of  what  is  required  must  give  a 
very  inadequate  view  of  the  matter,  and  one  which  it  is  hardly 
fair  to  put  off  upon  Protestants  or  upon  Anglicans  without  some 
further  notice  of  ideas  and  practices  popularly  dominant,  which 
go  far  beyond  what  is  required,  and  which  cannot  be  either 
tacitly  or  openly  condemned  without  implicating  in  some  sort  the 
Church  herself  in  the  same  condemnation. 

In  the  case  of  the  worship  of  Saints  the  dominant  and  living 
creed  has  been  stated  in  the  preceding  section  thus  :  That  faith 
in  the  general  efficacy  of  Invocations,  and  a  tentative  or  experi- 
mental use  of  particular  invocation  according  to  impulses  which 
may  seem  to  come  of  imagination,  of  some  outward  connection 
of  circumstances  or  inward  association  of  ideas,  or  of  the  example 
and  suggestion  of  others,  but  which  really  come  also  from  a 
higher  source,  are  means  of  grace  and  aid  appointed  by  God  for 
the  benefit  of  such  Christians  as  use  them  with  an  orthodox 
faith  and  piety.  In  like  manner  in  respect  of  the  worship  of 
Icons  the  dominant  popular  belief  is  this  :  That  a  sense  of  the 
importance  of  their  worship,  and  a  tentative  experimental  prac- 
tice of  it  in  particular  cases  and  towards  particular  Icons,  from 
motives  similar  to  those  which  prompt  particular  invocations  and 
devotions  to  particular  Saints,  has  a  sort  of  sacramental  virtue  ; 
and  has  been  appointed  by  God  to  be  a  channel  of  His  benefits, 
not  indeed  to  all  who  may  worship  holy  Icons,  nor  in  all  cases, 
but  to  men  of  pure  faith  and  religious  life,  and  in  particular 
cases,  w^hen  it  pleases  Him  so  to  manifest  his  goodness. 

The  source  and  basis  of  this  dominant  belief  is  to  be  found  in 
the  belief  of  particular  miracles  and  deliverances  associated  with 
particular  Icons  or  pictures. 

We  read  of  certain  of  the  earliest  Christians  that  they 
"  brought  forth  their  sick  on  beds  and  couches  into  the  streets, 
that  at  the  least  the  shadow  of  Peter  passing  by  might  over- 
shadow some  of  them."  And  again,  that  "  God  wrought  special 
miracles  by  the  hands  of  Paul;    so  that  from  his  body  were 


OF    ICONS    AND    RELICS.  2C7 

brought    unto    the    sick    handkerchiefs  and    aprons,   and    the 
diseases  departed  from  them,  and  the  evil  spirits  went  out  of 
them."     In  these  relations  we  see  a  certain  tentative  or  experi- 
mental act  of  faith  rewarded  with  miraculous  healings.    And  we 
can  understand  that  the  same  faith  would  continue  to  prompt 
Christians  to  do  like  tentative  or  experimental  acts  even  after 
the  Apostles  were  removed,  so  long  as  they  had  the  idea  that 
the  grace  and  power  of  God  wrought  through  outward  channels. 
They  would  go  and  pray  at  the  tombs  of  IMartyrs,  or  bring  the 
sick  or  the  possessed  to  their  Relics,  or  take  to  others  at  a  dis- 
tance some  handkerchief  or  apron  or  garment  from  their  Relics 
or  their  tombs.     They  would  see  too  in   churches  named  after 
them  (whether  containing  or  not  any  particle  of  their  Relics,) 
in  Hymns  made  to  be  sung  in  their  honour,  and  lastly  (after  the 
use  of  sacred  pictures  had  become  general,)  in  their  Pictures  also 
a  sort  of  "  shadow  "  of  the  Saints  who  were  represented.     And 
when  once  it  was  believed,  whether  rightly  or  mistakenly,  that 
by  this  or  that  particular  handkerchief  or  apron  or  picture  the 
Divine  grace  had  been    pleased  to  manifest  itself,  it  would  be 
natural  and  unavoidable  that  men  should  feel  a  certain  special 
regard  for    those    instruments,  and    should  be  moved  by  the 
association  to  seek  and  expect  a  repetition  of  the  same  graces 
rather  through  them  than  through  any  others  of  which  no  such 
miracles  were  as   yet  reported.     There  is    no  room    here   for 
questioning  whether  such  a  special  regard  is  allowable  or  blame- 
able.     The  thing  could  not  be  otherwise,  the  nature  of  man 
remaining  the  same.     It  is  therefore  safe  to  say  that  if  the  first 
experimental  use  of  the  handkerchief  or  the  picture  was  lawful 
and  pious,  those  consequences  which  followed  from  the  success 
of  the  experiment  of  faith  were  foreseen   and  allowed  prospec- 
tively by  the  Spirit  of  God,  Which  would  not  otherwise  have 
wrought  the  first  miracle. 

It  is  probable  then  (to  speak  generally,)  that  as  there  had 
been  in  earlier  centuries  particular  graces  and  healings  vouch- 
safed through  the  intercession  and  invocation  of  Saints,  and 
through  their  Relics,  so  there  were  also  (after  the  use  and 
veneration  of  Icons  had  been  introduced,)  similar  graces  and 
healings  vouchsafed  through  particular  Icons.  And  if  this  is 
believed  to  have  been  so,  and  may  have  been  so  in  truth,  it  fol- 


268  OF  THE  WORSUIP  OR  VENERATION 

lows  that  any  Icon  which  has  the  reputation  of  being  miraculous, 
and  is  popularly  honoured  on  that  account  with  a  special  honour, 
ought  to  be  honoured  so  far  as  custom  requires  by  all  those  who 
have  no  sufficient  reason  for  denying,  nor  can  disprove,  what  is 
generally  believed  respecting  it. 

But  it  by  no  means  follows  in  respect  to  the  worship  of  Icons 
(any  more  than  in  respect  to  the  worship  of  Saints,)  that  be- 
cause the  common  arguments  urged  against  the  thing  in  itself 
are  false,  therefore  there  neither  can  be  nor  is  any  excess  or  abuse 
connected  with  it  in  practice.  Nor  because  it  w^ould  be  wrong 
in  a  man  to  condemn  his  neighbours  for  the  respect  which  they 
may  show^  to  any  particular  Icon,  or  to  deny  absolutely  himself, 
or  insist  on  their  denying,  any  miracle  or  revelation  or  healing 
which  he  cannot  disprove,  does  it  therefore  foUov/  that  whatever 
is  so  asserted  and  believed,  whether  by  individuals  or  by  com- 
munities, is  true  in  fact.  Even  in  the  Apostles^  times  their 
miracles  would  give  occasion,  especially  among  those  without, 
to  many  more  reports  than  were  true,  and  to  other  tentative  acts 
besides  those  of  genuine  piety ;  and  would  cause  them  some- 
times to  be  sought  to  and  honoured  by  men  very  different  from 
those  who,  like  the  cripple  at  Lystra,  "  had  faith  to  be  healed.'^ 
And  in  tlie  same  vfay,  when  the  Christian  society  came  to  be 
more  mixed,  and  the  majority  of  its  members  were  weak  or 
unholy,  the  fame  of  miracles  would  produce  in  the  mixed  multi- 
tude more  or  less  of  a  mixed  and  unholy  superstition.  Men 
would  think  rather  of  the  outward  wondei*s  in  themselves,  and  of 
the  Saints,  Relics,  or  Icons  with  which  they  were  associated,  than 
of  the  inward  dispositions  requisite  in  all  who  would  either 
obtain  miracles  or  profit  by  them.  And  they  whose  tentative 
acts,  or  whose  devotion  towards  any  Saint,  Relic,  or  Icon  was 
least  likely  to  obtain  any  real  grace  from  God,  would  be  most 
apt,  from  their  want  of  spiritual  discernment  and  virtue,  both  to 
propagate  false  stories  and  to  distort  true ;  while  all  that  was 
not  in  itself  contrary  to  faith,  w^ien  once  it  had  obtained  circu- 
lation, would  be  credited  by  good  and  simple  people,  and  by 
society  at  large. 

This  concrete  growth  of  faith  and  piety  mixed  with  supersti- 
tion and  carnality^,  tentative  and  imitative  acts  proceeding  from 
the  one  mixed  with  tentative  and  imitative  acts  proceeding  from 


OF    ICONS    AND    RELICS. 


269 


the  other,  and  popular  beliefs  and  devotions  representing  the 
joint  influence  of  both,  is  absolutely  identical  in  all  the  three 
branches  of  the  worship  of  Saints,  the  worship  of  Icons  or 
Pictures,  and  the  worship  of  Relics.  But  its  character  may  be 
examined  and  distinguished  most  easily  in  the  case  of  the  wor- 
ship of  Relics ;  and  that  for  the  following  reason,  that  the  in- 
quiry, so  long  as  it  is  confined  to  this  one  branch,  is  embarrassed 
by  no  such  preliminary,  objections  and  prejudices  as  lie  against 
Saint-worship  and  Image- worship.  Relics  arc  not  living  creatures 
to  which  the  honour  due  to  God  may  be  misdirected  :  nor  are  they 
likenesses  of  things  in  heaven  or  in  earth  or  under  the  earth,  by 
making  or  honouring  which  the  Second  Commandment  may  be 
violated.  The  bones  of  a  Martyr  are  inoffensive  and  passive. 
A  man  must  be  indeed  brutalized  by  heresy  who  can  deny  to 
them  that  honour  and  affection  which  even  heathens  sometimes 
bestow  by  natural  instinct  on  the  remains  of  their  dead.  Nor 
will  he  deny  that  such  affection  and  honour  may  be  expressed 
outwardly,  as  well  as  felt  inwardly  :  and  in  conformity  with  an 
established  custom,  as  well  as  incidentally  of  spontaneous  emo- 
tion. And  if  it  chance  that  a  sick  man  or  a  demoniac  approach 
the  Relics  of  a  Martyr  and  is  healed,  or  if  a  blind  man  receives 
his  sight,  there  is  no  room  to  quarrel  either  with  the  Martyr 
who  sought  no  worship,  nor  with  the  Relics  which  are  inanimate, 
nor  with  the  man  healed  who  perhaps  uttered  no  word,  nor  with 
the  free  grace  and  power  of  God.  Yet  such  facts  as  these  once  oc- 
currins:,  or  being  believed  to  have  occurred,  it  was  inevitable  that 
the  Relics  and  the  Martyrs  themselves  through  which  they  had 
occurred,  should  be  celebrated  and  honoured  not  only  by  the 
secret  "faithful,"  but  also  by  the  mixed  "congregation^'  of 
Christians  :  that  a  general  feeling,  and  a  ritual  custom  for 
honouring  all  Relics  of  Saints  should  grow  up  :  that  some  Relics 
should  be  worshipped  more,  some  less,  from  divers  causes  more 
or  less  valid  or  superficial :  that  in  time  true  Relics  should  be 
multiplied,  and  should  be  subdivided  into  fragments,  and  false 
Relics  invented,  and  celebrated  as  true :  that  fabulous  miracles 
should  be  ascribed  to  genuine  Relics,  and  sometimes  perhaps 
true  miracles  be  granted  to  simple  worshippers  of  Relics  which 
are  not  genuine  :  that  communities,  nations,  and  ages  should 
take  the  colour  of  their  belief  from  the  individuals  of  whom  they 


270  OP   THE    WORSHIP    OR    VENERATIOiV 

are  composed :  that  things  false  as  well  as  true  should  find  their 
way  not  only  into  the  popular  belief  but  even  into  the  Hymns 
and  Lessons  and  Ritual  of  the  Church ;  and  that  it  should  be- 
come wholly  impossible  not  only  for  common  individuals  but 
even  for  Ecclesiastical  authorities  to  discriminate  between  the 
true  and  the  false  portions  of  the  concrete  growth,  or  to  pre- 
scribe such  rules  as  shall  present  the  continuance  of  a  similar 
process  of  concrete  growth  for  the  future. 

Such  a  complication  of  certainty  and  doubtfulness  respecting 
particular  facts  (though  not  respecting  principles  or  doctrines,) 
of  truth  and  falsehood,  of  good,  bad,  and  mixed  religion,  on 
three  such  important  subjects,  is  no  doubt  highly  irritating  to 
the  impatience  of  human  reason,  which  would  rather  deny  and 
condemn  everything  with  the  Protestant  or  believe  everything 
with  indiscriminating  and  reckless  credulity,  than  endure  the 
torture  of  a  suspense  which  it  abhors.  But  these  three  are  not 
the  only  subjects  on  which  the  same  suspense  must  be  endured. 
The  whole  body  of  external  religion  (especially  in  respect  of  those 
things  which  are  good  or  bad  only  as  they  are  used  or  abused,) 
has  a  double  aspect :  so  that  contrary  propositions,  favourable  and 
unfavourable,  Orthodox  and  Protestant,  are  true  of  it  at  once, 
and  of  all  its  parts,  though  in  different  respects.  In  itself,  in 
the  intention  of  the  Church,  and  in  the  practice  of  good  Chris- 
tians, all  is  good :  but  in  its  abuse  or  perversion,  and  in  bad  or 
imperfect  Christians,  the  whole  body  of  external  religion  tends  to 
become  (what  it  is  called  by  the  Quakers  and  the  Duchobortsi,  and 
by  other  sectaries,)  an  idolatrous  and  heathenish  superstition. 

Most  of  all  is  this  the  case  in  respect  of  that  union  of  the 
Church  and  the  Clergy  with  the  world  which  is  called  the  civil 
or  national  establishment  of  Christianity.  Viewed  in  itself  the- 
oretically, and  in  one  part  or  aspect  of  its  practical  working,  this 
is  very  good.  It  makes  the  kings  and  rulers  of  the  world  to 
become  the  servants  and  fosterfathers  of  the  Church,  and  faci- 
litates the  salvation  of  innumerable  souls.  But  viewed  in 
another  aspect  of  its  practical  working  it  is  intensely  evil.  It 
enslaves  the  Church  to  the  powers  of  this  world :  it  enfeebles 
and  corrupts  her  spiritual  energies  :  it  combines  Jerusalem  and 
Babylon  inseparably  and  undistinguishably  together,  so  that 
one  and  the  same  concrete  is  in  one  of  its  aspects  Jerusalem,  in 


OF    ICONS    AND    RELICS,  271 

another  Babylon.  And  if  so,  then  it  is  no  more  than  we  might 
expect  that  there  should  be  in  the  subordinate  details  also  of 
outward  Christianity  other  instances  of  a  similar  double-sided- 
ness  :  that  ritual  worship  in  one  of  its  aspects  should  be  a 
symphony  of  men  with  angels,  but  in  another  a  lip-service  wor- 
thy of  the  priests  of  the  Grand  Lama :  that  the  stated  fasts 
should  be  at  once  the  life  of  prayer  and  spirituality,  and  a  mere 
Judaical  form  :  that  monasticism  should  be  at  once  the  salt  of 
the  Church,  and  a  sink  of  hypocrisy  or  idleness  :  that  the  wor- 
ship of  Saints,  Images,  and  Relics  should  in  one  aspect  be 
worthy  of  the  citizens  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  but  in  another  a 
mass  of  such  adulterous  and  unholy  superstition,  covetousness, 
and  imposture,  as  can  only  belong  to  Babylon. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION. 

Apart  from  particular  controversies,  though  closely  connected 
with  them,  there  is  the  general  question  of  Credulity  and  Super- 
stition which  it  may  be  proper  to  consider  separately.  Super- 
stition, it  is  said,  not  only  exists  abundantly  and  is  tolerated 
within  the  Eastern  Church,  but  it  is  even  adopted  and  main- 
tained to  a  certain  extent  by  that  Church  herself. 

Some,  seeing  how  religion  is  clogged  with  a  mass  of  the  most 
grotesque  fables  and  the  most  palpable  frauds,  are  for  discarding 
indiscriminately  whatever  seems  contrary  to  the  belief  and  spirit 
of  the  present  age.  Others,  seeing  whither  such  a  spirit  of  cri- 
tical scepticism  tends,  are  afraid  to  hint  the  slightest  doubt  of 
any  thing  which  the  popular  mind  receives,  and  defend,  sincerely 
or  hypocritically,  much  which  it  is  neither  easy  to  believe  nor 
edifying  to  defend.  Thus  the  two  parties  assist  the  enemy  of 
souls,  and  conspire  to  force  men  to  choose  between  an  irreligious 
scepticism  and  an  unbounded  superstition. 

We  shall  here  state  briefly  a  few  considerations  which  may 
serve  to  limit  the  excess  of  scepticism  on  the  one  side  and  the 
excess  of  mischievous  credulity,  or  still  more  mischievous  afiec- 
tation  of  credulity,  on  the  other. 

Against  unlimited  scepticism  respecting  stories  of  revelations 
and  miracles  by  the  intervening  ministry  of  Saints  or  Angels, 
or  through  Relics,  or  directly  from  God  in  answer  to  prayer,  it 
is  enough  to  say, 

I.  That  as  we  have  the  record  of  many  such  miracles  both  in 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  as  all  nations  and  men  of  all 
religions  have  ever  been  inclined  to  believe  such  things,  it  is 
more  natural  and  reasonable  to  believe  than  to  doubt : 


OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION.  273 

II.  That  Christianity  itself  being  altogether  divine  and  su- 
pernatural, and  every  one  of  its  most  frequently  repeated  Mys- 
teries involving  miracles  of  the  highest  kind,  he  who  makes  a 
difficulty  of  believing  the  less  can  scarcely  be  thought  sincerely 
to  believe  the  greater.  And  unquestionably,  to  give  one  exam- 
ple, for  a  blind  man  to  be  restored  to  bodily  sight  is  a  less 
miracle  than  for  a  soul  to  be  enlightened  or  regenerated  in 
the  Sacrament  of  holy  Baptism. 

III.  If  it  be  objected  that  all  the  miracles  recorded  in  holy 
Scripture  seem  to  recommend  themselves  by  some  propriety  of 
signification  or  circumstance,  whereas  with  great  numbers  of 
Ecclesiastical  miracles  it  is  just  the  reverse,  it  may  be  remem- 
bered, first,  that  if  the  inspired  writers  had  not  recorded  all  with 
exact  propriety  and  accuracy,  but  we  had  been  left  to  find  out 
for  ourselves  from  a  mass  of  w^ritteu  or  oral  traditions  and  popu- 
lar tales  the  miracles  of  the  Apostolic  age  and  of  all  other  ages 
preceding,  we  cannot  doubt  that  there  would  have  been  a  great 
mass  of  truth  and  error  or  fable  mixed  together ;  many  false 
miracles  as  well  as  some  true ;  and  respecting  the  ti*ue  many 
distorted  representations,  suppressions  of  important  particulars, 
and  additions  of  fabulous  circumstances ;  so  that  it  would  have 
been  no  easy  matter  for  mere  unassisted  reason  to  discern  the 
grain  from  the  chaff. 

IV.  Even  granting  that  there  is  a  difference  in  kind  between 
modern  or  Ecclesiastical  miracles  and  those  recorded  in  holy 
Scripture,  still  there  may  be  many  degrees  and  kinds  of  mira- 
cles, as  well  as  of  revelation  and  inspiration. 

V.  Further,  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  if  on  the  one  hand  it  is 
difficult  or  impossible  even  for  the  most  enlightened  to  distin- 
guish accurately  between  false  miracles  and  true,  or  between  the 
truth  and  the  fable  or  error  mixed  up  together  in  any  one  par- 
ticular legend,  on  the  other  hand  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  to 
faith  or  piety  that  this  should  be  otherwise.  It  is  indeed  neces- 
sary for  us  to  know  the  Articles  of  the  Faith,  the  Commandments 
of  God,  and  certain  short  Prayers  :  But  to  know  whether  this 
or  that  story  of  a  divine  interposition  is  fact  or  fable  ;  whether 
it  is  unmixed  truth  or  unmixed  error,  or  a  mixture  of  truth  and 
error ;  and,  if  a  mixture,  in  what  proportions ;  this  is  often  a 
question  rather  of  curiosity  than  of  religion.     And  it  may  be 

T 


274  OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION. 

more  salutary  for  the  mind  to  be  left  in  doubt  upon  many  such 
matters,  than  to  be  encouraged  to  decide  upon  every  thing. 

VI.  And  as  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  judge  even  for  our- 
selves in  all  cases,  so  still  less  is  it  necessai*y  or  reasonable  that, 
if  we  do  judge,  we  should  force  our  judgments  upon  others.  If  a 
man  or  a  nation  believe  any  miraculous  story,  which  is  not  im- 
pious in  itself  but  capable  of  being  viewed  in  a  good  light  as 
making  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  we  think  we  have  reason  to 
doubt  or  deny  this  story,  we  are  not  necessarily  called  upon  to 
attack,  nor  even  justified  in  attacking,  the  popular  error.  And 
if  we  do  attack  it  we  must  take  the  consequences,  just  as  if  we 
attacked  the  dominant  opinions  or  feelings  of  the  multitude  on 
any  other  subject  of  social  or  political  interest. 

VII.  Neither  is  it  necessary  or  right  for  us  to  refuse  to  sing 
in  the  church  a  Kanon  in  honour  of  some  doubtful  Saint  or 
miracle,  or  to  pay  the  customary  honour  to  some  doubtful  Icon 
or  Relic.  For  charity  forbids  us  for  our  own  personal  doubts  to 
scandalize  those  who,  not  being  in  doubt,  will  see  in  our  con- 
duct only  a  dishonour  of  holy  things  :  not  to  say  that  a  personal 
doubt  ought  to  give  way  to  a  public  belief,  rather  than  expect 
the  public  belief  to  give  way  to  it.  Nay  more,  even  if  we  had 
a  conviction  or  knowledge  that  the  Icon  or  the  Relic  was  false, 
though  in  that  case  we  should  not  seek  occasion  unnecessarily 
to  honour  them,  we  should  not  be  justified  in  refusing  the  ho- 
nour if  called  upon  to  pay  it,  unless  we  were  in  the  place  of 
authority,  and  were  able  to  teach  the  people  that  they  were 
under  a  mistake  without  fear  of  some  greater  scandal  or  mis- 
chief resulting  from  this  assertion  on  our  part  than  from  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  people  in  their  innocent  or  pious  error  as  to  a 
mere  matter  of  fact. 

The  cause  for  which  we  ought  to  be  careful  to  encourage  a 
spirit  of  religious  and  discriminating  caution,  and  avoidance  of 
precipitate  credulity,  even  in  cases  where  the  thing  itself  seems 
harmless  or  edifying,  is  this,  that  there  is  a  tendency  in  credu- 
lity and  superstition  to  produce  eventually  a  contrary  excess  of 
scepticism  and  unbelief.  The  evil  one,  the  father  of  lies,  is  not 
so  simple  as  to  prompt  men  to  invent  lies  which  are  directly 
and  absolutely  to  his  own  disadvantage.  One  Saint,  it  is  said, 
in  two  days  and  two  nights  sailed  round  on  a  stone  by  way  of  the 


OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION.  275 

Atlantic  ocean,  the  Baltic  sea,  the  Neva,  the  lake  Ladoga,  and 
the  river  VolchofF,  from  Old  Rome  to  Great  Novgorod  :  Another 
sailed  about  the  Northern  ocean  on  his  cloke  :  And  if  one  hesi- 
tates to  assent  to  such  legends,  one  is  liable  to  be  asked  Why,  if 
these  miracles  are  not  true,  should  the  devil  invent  such  tri- 
umphs over  himself,  or  such  testimonies  to  the  power  of  the 
Cross,  which  is  the  same  thing  ?  But  the  devil  knows  very  well 
that  at  a  certain  point  of  accumulation  of  grotesque  miracles 
men  begin  to  laugh  :  and  sometimes  the  miracle  is  in  itself  not 
only  grotesque  but  laughable  :  next  they  discover  in  some  in- 
stances clear  signs  of  fraud  or  folly  :  and  then,  the  whole  seem- 
ing to  have  grown  up  together  into  one  system,  and  to  have  be- 
come one  concrete  mass  with  the  very  faith  and  life  of  the 
Church  herself,  the  superstructure  of  wood,  hay,  and  stubble  is 
made  an  occasion  for  overturning  even  the  foundations. 

For  this  reason,  and  seeing  the  danger  of  utter  scepticism 
which  is  fostered  by  the  indiscriminate  defence  of  all  popular 
and  ecclesiastical  beliefs,  we  will  now  briefly  point  out  some  of 
the  chief  sources  of  false  and  mixed  legends,  leaving  it  for  the 
most  part  to  the  reader  to  apply  them  to  particular  cases,  and 
to  add  other  similar  sources  for  himself. 

I.  One  of  the  simplest  and  most  innocent  sources  of  false 
miracles  lies  in  men^s  having  misunderstood  what  was  said  or 
seen  or  done  mentally,  metaphorically,  or  spiritually,  as  if  it  had 
been  seen  or  done  bodily.  Thus  when  the  Saxon  Saint  Dunstan, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  England,  had  enforced  the  disci- 
pline of  the  Church  even  against  the  king,  and  some  of  his 
"contemporaries  and  disciples  had  said  strongly  and  expressively 

that  he  had  "  taken  the  devil  by  the  nose,"  and  the  painters  had 
visibly  embodied  this  figure  of  speech,  the  common  people  un- 
derstood both  the  word  and  the  paintings  to  express  a  literal 
fact.  Another  Saint,  wishing  to  reprove  and  teach  a  slothful 
monk  who  slept  in  his  stall  during  Matins,  said  that  he  had 
seen  a  huge  serpent  coiled  up  and  lying  on  his  head  :  and  it 
was  supposed  that  the  Saint  had  seen  a  real  snake. 

II.  Another  source  is  the  misconception  of  what  was  told  or 
written  allegorically,  as  in  the  legend  of  the  Sicilian  Virgin  Agatha 
who  is  tempted  by  five  abandoned  young  women,  who  are  evi- 
dently nothing  else  than  personifications  of  the  five  senses. 

T   2 


276  OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION, 

III.  Another  source  lies  in  the  popular  misunderstanding  of 
emblematical  ceremonies.  Thus  the  reappearance  of  a  light 
from  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  after  all  other  lights  have  been  extin- 
guished in  the  church,  has  for  many  ages  been  taken  to  be 
miraculous,  (formerly  by  the  Latins  and  Armenians  as  well  as  by 
the  Greeks,  and  still  by  the  common  people  among  the  Greeks,) 
although  it  is  plainly  only  a  very  significant  and  appropriate 
Ecclesiastical  ceremony,  identical  with  what  is  practised  in  all 
Latin  churches  without  any  idea  of  a  miracle. 

IV.  A  fourth  source  is  6ju,aivy/x.ja,  of  which  we  have  a  good 
instance  in  the  ascription  of  particular  Icons  to  St.  Luke  the 
Evangelist.  When  attention  began  to  be  drawn  to  such  pictures 
as  existed  among  Christians,  and  questions  to  be  raised  about 
them,  it  is  plain  that  they  who  painted  them  or  possessed  them 
must  either  admit  that  they  were  mere  creations  of  fancy,  and 
had  no  claim  to  be  likenesses,  or  say  that  they  exhibited  a  tra- 
ditional likeness  handed  down  through  pictures  first  painted  by 
contemporaries,  and  through  copies  afterwards  made  from  such 
pictures.  The  likeness  then  in  this  or  that  picture  of  our  Sa- 
viour or  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  was  said  to  be  from  St.  Luke, 
who  was  supposed  first  to  have  painted  pictures  of  them.  And 
the  likeness  in  the  Icon  and  the  Icon  itself  being  expressed  by 
one  and  the  same  word,  and  so  being  liable  to  be  confounded 
together  from  tbe  first,  the  material  picture  would  get  the  credit 
of  being  itself  the  original,  and  of  having  been  painted  by  the 
hands  of  the  Evangelist.  Then,  as  copies  came  to  be  taken  from 
such  pictures,  they  too  would  be  said,  to  distinguish  them  from 
others  of  later  design,  to  be  from  St.  Luke,  that  is,  to  be  reproduc- 
tions of  that  particular  design  and  likeness  which  belonged  to 
the  older  picture  from  which  they  were  copied.  And  the  same 
process  would  be  repeated  over  again  with  these  also,  the  copies 
coming  to  be  taken  to  be  not  only  in  the  likenesses  contained  in 
them  but  in  their  material  substance  and  colour  from  the  very 
hands  of  St.  Luke.  Another  double  misconception  of  the  same 
kind  was  not  uncommon  in  the  West :  The  Relics  of  a  Martyr  or 
Saint  and  the  Saint  himself  are  in  a  manner  identical :  and  if 
the  Relics  were  translated  to  any  particular  spot,  the  Saint  w^ould 
be  said  "  to  have  come  thither,"  and  to  have  blessed  and  defended 
that  church  or  city  with  his  presence  and  protection.     Again, 


OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION.  277 

the  statue  or  picture  of  a  Saint  or  Martyr  was  said  to  be  the 
Saint  himself,  that  is,  his  likeness.  And  it  was  common  to  re- 
present a  Martyr  who  had  been  beheaded  with  his  head  in  his 
hand,  or  under  his  arm,  that  the  statue  or  picture  might  of  itself 
signify  the  manner  of  his  death.  Hence  arose  stories  among 
the  people  that  such  and  such  Martyrs  (whose  statues  they  were 
used  perhaps  to  see  in  niches  outside  of  their  Cathedral  with 
their  heads  under  their  arms,)  had  been  beheaded,  and  after  their 
decapitation  had  miraculously  walked  to  this  or  that  spot  hold- 
ing their  heads  in  their  hands,  or  under  their  arms.  Of  the 
same  kind  among  the  heathens  were  various  legends  in  which 
the  name  or  sign  given  to  a  ship  was  confounded  with  the 
ship  itself.  Europa  no  doubt  crossed  the  sea  in  a  ship  with  the 
figure  of  a  Bull  at  its  bulkhead ;  and  Ariou  was  picked  up  and 
landed  at  Tsenarus  by  a  ship  named  the  Dolphin. 

V.  Another  source  is  when  things  were  reported  which  could 
not  be  correctly  understood  at  a  distance,  or  effects  witnessed 
which  could  not  be  accounted  for  by  any  known  power  or  agency. 
In  such  cases  it  is  natural  for  Christians  as  well  as  for  heathens 
to  refer  those  things  which  strike  tbem  as  wonderful  not  only 
directly  to  God,  but  also  to  such  other  inferior  agencies  as  they 
may  seem  to  be  connected  with  by  any  association  of  ideas. 
Thus  vast  ruins  in  the  East  are  ascribed  to  Solomon  tasking  the 
Genii ;  and  the  building  of  Cathedrals  still  standing  in  Scandi- 
navia is  ascribed  by  the  people  to  similar  invisible  powers  sub- 
jected to  the  command  of  Christian  Bishops  and  Saints.  The 
first  ship  seen  by  savages  ignorant  of  navigation  becomes  a  liv- 
ing being :  the  first  steamer  a  dragon  breathing  out  fire  and 
smoke.  The  first  horsemen  were  Centaurs.  And  we  are  still 
familiar  with  the  actual  production  of  fable  from  this  source, 
whenever  any  people  comparatively  ignorant  and  barbarous  are 
brought  for  the  first  time  in  contact  with  the  wonders  of  art  and 
science  and  civilization. 

VI.  Another  source  there  is  identical  in  principle  with  the 
preceding,  but  differing  from  it  in  this,  that  either  the  associa- 
tion in  virtue  of  which  we  refer  any  particular  effect  not  directly 
to  God  but  to  this  or  that  subordinate  agency,  or  the  wonder 
itself,  or  both,  are  of  men's  own  original  or  conventional  devising. 
God,  Who  is  Almighty,  infinite,  and  all-sustaining,  contains  all 


278  OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION. 

things;  and  \Yithout  His  will  nothing  is  done  that  is  done:  we 
are  therefore  always  I'ight  in  seeking  all  things  which  it  is  right 
to  seek  from  Him,  and  in  ascribing  all  that  befalls,  whether  in 
seeming  answer  to  our  prayers  or  otherwise,  to  His  will  or  per- 
mission. But  when  we  come  to  subordinate  limited  agencies, 
this  is  no  longer  so.  And  yet  it  is  very  natural  and  very  com- 
mon first,  in  virtue  of  some  hint  or  association,  to  ascribe  a 
general  or  particular  sphere,  influence,  or  ministry,  to  this  or 
that  Angel,  or  Saint,  or  other  created  thing,  and  then  to  seek 
from  it  or  through  it  this  or  that  effect ;  and  if  the  effect  follow, 
to  attribute  it  to  the  agency  or  intercession  which  was  in  our 
minds.  Elijah  having  brought  down  rain  after  a  long  drought 
by  his  prayers  upon  the  top  of  Mount  Carmel,  Christians  by 
virtue  of  the  association  make  the  nearest  height  to  their  city  or 
monastery  into  a  Carmel,  and  plant  upon  it  a  chapel  of  St.  Elias  : 
and  if  they  pray  there  in  time  of  drought,  and  rain  follows,  it  is 
for  them  a  miracle  obtained  by  the  prayers  of  St.  Elias.  The 
vessels  of  the  Russians  which  came  to  attack  Constantinople  in 
the  ninth  century  were  wrecked  and  driven  ashore  near  the 
church  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  at  Blachernse ;  and  the  Patriarch 
had  dipped  what  was  supposed  to  be  her  robe  in  the  sea  before 
the  storm  arose,  and  had  sung  an  "  Akathist  '^  to  implore  her 
protection.  The  result  following  which  was  desired,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  both  the  Christians  of  Constantinople  and  the  bar- 
barians themselves  ascribed  it  to  her  interference.  Yet  seeing 
that  rain  after  drought,  and  storms  of  the  sea,  and  vicissitudes 
of  dangers  and  deliverances  to  men  and  cities  and  nations  cer- 
tainly do  happen  in  virtue  of  God's  general  and  particular 
government  of  the  world,  we  must  always  be  more  or  less  uncer- 
tain in  attributing  such  things  to  some  other  secondary  agency 
over  and  above,  so  long  as  this  secondary  agency  is  of  our  own 
choice  and  devising,  and  so  long  as  the  things  themselves  are  not 
manifest  and  striking  reversals  of  the  ordinary  course  of  nature. 
The  case  would  be  different  if  any  one  had  made  iron  to  swim  by 
invoking  the  aid  of  Elisha ;  or  if  any  one  by  invoking  the  aid  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin  had  restored  sight  to  one  born  blind :  or  had 
raised  a  man  to  life  from  the  dead. 

On  the  same  principle  as  that  spoken  of  above,  St.  Luke  having 
come  to  be  regarded  as  the  first  Icon-painter  and  the  Patron  of 


OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION.  279 

that  art,  an  Icon  found  in  a  cave,  as  at  Megasp^laion,  without 
any  known  history,  overgrown  with  ivy  and  other  greens, 
would  seem  as  if  painted  and  left  there  by  St.  Luke  himself. 
And  even  if,  on  burning  the  underwood  and  clearing  out  the 
cave,  it  appeared  that  there  had  been  an  altar  cut  in  the  rock 
and  a  hermitage  in  connection  with  the  Icon,  this,  instead  of 
destroying  the  former  idea,  would  only  suggest  an  addition  to  it, 
namely,  that  St.  Luke  himself  had  been  the  hermit  who  had 
lived  there,  and  had  celebrated  on  that  altar ;  and  even  that  he 
had  written  his  Gospel  in  the  same  cavern.  All  which  would  be 
corroborated  by  the  historical  tradition  that  he  did  really  come 
into  Achaia,  and  was  buried  at  Thebes.  To  account  for  the 
growth  of  the  whole  legend  we  need  suppose  no  more  than  that 
the  two  brothers  from  Thessalonica,  when  they  first  saw  the 
Icon  in  the  cave,  uttered  some  such  words  as  these,  "  How  can 
this  have  come  here  ?  It  looks  as  if  it  had  grown  of  itself 
among  the  ivy  on  the  walls  of  the  cave  :  or  rather  as  if  St.  Luke 
himself  had  painted  it,  and  left  it  here  for  us  to  find,  and  to  as- 
sist us  in  our  mission  V  These  words  falling  upon  the  ears  of 
others  would  be  enough :  and  in  the  next  generation  of  their 
disciples  and  followers  the  whole  would  be  related  as  a  fact  or 
tradition,  which  had  probably  been  related  to  the  Saints,  the 
first  finders  of  the  Icon,  in  a  vision  or  dream. 

VIT.  Another  source  is  the  insensible  and  unintentional  accre- 
tion of  circumstances  through  the  imperfection  of  oral  tradition, 
and  through  the  licence  of  imagination  and  embellishment  in- 
dulged in  by  those  who  with  scanty  materials  first  fix  oral  tra- 
dition in  writing.  All  monks,  as  such,  have  placed  themselves 
in  a  manner  under  the  protection  and  intercession  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin.  A  monk  founding  a  hermitage  or  monastery  must,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  desire  to  find  water  for  it ;  and  on  finding  the 
water,  or  digging  the  well,  he  will  say  with  propriety  not  merely 
"  Here  by  the  favour  of  God,^^  but  "  Here  by  the  favour  of  God 
and  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,"  or  "  Here  by  the  favour  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  I  found  water  for  the  brethren."  (As,  when  the  Deacon  is 
going  to  read  the  Gospel  in  the  church,  the  Bishop  blesses  him  with 
a  prayer  that  God  "  by  the  prayers  of  the  holy  Evangelist  N." 
who  is  to  be  read,  will  give  him  grace  to  read  to  the  edification 
of  the  hearers.)     The  disciples  of  such  a  monk  or  Founder  in 


280  or    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION. 

the  next  generation  will  relate  that  "  Here  the  Blessed  Virgin 
helped  the  Saint  to  find  water."  In  the  mouth  of  the  next  it 
will  he  that  "  Here  she  appeared  to  the  Saint,  and  showed  him 
the  spring/'  Then  comes  some  one  who  writes  for  the  first 
time  the  life  of  the  Founder  :  and  he  will  not  only  make  the 
Blessed  Virgin  appear,  but  will  dramatize  the  narrative,  and  give 
the  very  words  which  passed  between  her  and  the  Saint;  and 
very  probably  will  suppose  and  represent  that  she  did  not  merely 
teach  the  Saint  where  to  find  a  spring  already  existing,  but 
called  the  spring  itself  into  existence  for  his  sake. 

VIII.  Another  most  fertile  source  lies  in  the  spirit  of  imita- 
ti(m  and  rhetorical  embellishment  common  to  writers  of  the  bio- 
graphies of  Saints.  Little  being  known  in  many  cases  of  the 
details  of  the  real  life,  the  tradition  of  the  Saint  whose  life  is  to 
be  written  having  been  distinguished  for  certain  virtues,  or  the 
general  idea  of  the  virtues  belonging  to  this  or  that  class  of 
Saints,  suggests  certain  details :  and  the  half-miracles  of  the  en- 
comiast swell  into  real  miracles.  The  miracle  of  feeding  the 
brethren  by  some  miraculous  supply,  or  by  the  multiplication  of 
some  small  remains  of  their  stock  of  provisions,  with  many  other 
like  marvels,  occur  over  and  over  again  in  the  lives  of  different 
Saints  who  were  hegouraens,  just  as  if  the  biographers  of  later 
Saints  had  borrowed  largely  from  the  lives  of  the  more  ancient. 

IX.  Another  source  is  that  of  apocryphal  and  spurious  wri- 
tings. For  example,  certain  particulars  respecting  the  early  life 
of  the  Blessed  Virgin  now  popularly  received  by  tradition  and 
celebrated  in  some  of  the  hymns  of  the  Church  seem  to  have 
been  taken  from  the  spurious  Gospels  of  the  early  heretics. 

X.  Another  source  often  superadded  to  one  or  more  of  the 
above  is  that  of  human  influence  and  authority.  For  instance, 
the  influence  of  some  holy  man  in  the  Church,  or  of  some  great 
man  or  body  of  men  in  the  world,  of  Emperors,  Courts,  Cities, 
or  jNIonastcries,  or  Nations,  whose  reception  and  veneration  of 
any  miracle,  or  Saint,  or  Icon,  others  follow.  There  is  also  the 
still  higher  influence  of  the  Church,  when  private  and  popular 
ideas  and  devotions  concerning  matters  of  fact  have  come  to 
be  countenanced,  and  in  some  measure  received  by  her,  and 
even  Ofiices  and  Hymns  to  be  composed  and  used  consecrating 
the  popular  belief  of  this  or  that  particular  wonder. 


OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION.  281 

XL  Another  source  is  that  of  human  reasoning,  which,  not 
content  with  deducing   logical   consequences  from   the  facts  or 
doctrines  of  revelation,  goes  on  to  the  assertion  of  fresh /«c/s 
which  at  most  can  only  be  said  to  be  probable.     For  instance  : 
From  the  Incarnation  it  seems  to  follow  clearly  that  our  human 
nature  is  taken  into  a  closer  union   with  the  Deity  than  any 
other  nature ;  and  from  having  been  a  little  lower  than  that  of 
the  angels  is  crowned  with  glory  and  worship  ;  that  is,  is  exalted 
far  above  all  principalities  and  powers.     Viewing  the  human  na- 
ture in  th«  Blessed  Virgin,  who  is,  in  and  under  her  Son,  its 
most  preeminent   representative,  in  this  light,  it  is  no  super- 
stition to  teach  and  sing  that  she  who  is  the  mother  of  Christ 
our  God  is  "  more  honourable  than  the  Cherubim,  and  incom- 
parably more  glorious  than    the    Seraphim."     And   when  we 
argue  that,  if  after  the  Resurrection  of  Christ  "  many  of  the 
bodies  of  the  Saints  which  slept  arose,"  (and  some  of  the  Fathers 
suppose  this  to  mean  that  they  arose  with  their  bodies  never  to 
die  again,)  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  the  Blessed  Virgin  was 
not  equally  honoured :  and  that  therefore  it  is  not  only  possible 
h\xt  probable  that  she  also  received  her  body  again  shortly  after 
her  decease,   we  are  thus  far  guilty  of  no  superstition.     But 
when  we  go  on  further  to   assert  categorically,  either  on  the 
strength  of  this  reasoning,  or  on  the  authority  of  some  spurious 
or  anonymous  writing  later  by  centuries  than  the  event,  and  in- 
consistent with  the  allusions  of  earlier  Fathers,  that  she  did  actu- 
ally receive  her  body  again  ;  that  she  was  carried  to  heaven  by 
angels  in  the  body  on  the  third  day ;  that  the  Apostles  were 
gathered  together;  and  that  St.  Thomas  again  doubted  ;  so  as  to 
make  of  the  whole  history  a  counterpart  to  that  of  our  Lord's 
resurrection  :  and  when  all  this  is  popularly  and  ecclesiastically 
received,  and  made  the   subject   of  hymns,   and  sermons,  and 
ceremonies,  we  must  either  allow  that  here  is  a  growth  of  hu- 
man superstition  floating  in  the  Church ;   or  we  must  boldly 
assert  that  the  matter  of  fact  has   been  made   known  to  the 
Church  by  a  later  revelation ;  and  even  perhaps  in  part  (as  will 
be  the  case   in  some   other   similar   instances    also,)    through 
the  means  of  testimonies  and  arguments  which  will  not  bear 
scrutiny  in  themselves,  the  premisses  being  false  but  the  con- 
clusion true,  the  foundation  worthless  but  the  superstructure 
which  has  been  raised  upon  it  not  doomed  to  fall. 


282  OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION. 

XII.  Another  source  is  that  of  connivance,  silence,  or  ma- 
nagement (without  any  actual  assertion  of  what  is  false)  assisting 
the  imagination  of  the  simple  and  ignorant  in  originating  and 
perpetuating  wonders.  Thus  in  respect  of  the  Holy  Fire  at  Je- 
rusalem, the  Clergy,  for  whatever  reason,  do  not  teach  the 
people  that  what  they  celebrate  as  a  miracle  is  merely  an  eccle- 
siastical ceremony.  And,  to  cite  another  instance,  in  the  very 
remarkable  legend  of  the  preservation  of  the  young  monk  of 
Dochiareion  on  Mount  Athos  by  the  Archangels,  it  was  enough 
that  the  monk  himself,  and  the  Hegoumen,  and  the  porter,  kept 
their  secret,  and  did  not  publish  how  he  had  escaped  drowning, 
or  how  he  came  to  be  found  by  all  the  brethren  lying  before  the 
Icon  of  the  Archangels  in  the  church  of  their  Monastery,  with 
the  stone  fastened  to  his  neck. 

XIII.  Lastly,  no  doubt,  there  have  occurred,  and  may  occur 
still,  direct  frauds,  in  which  falsehood  in  some  degree  or  other 
has  been  used  for  a  certain  definite  purpose :  though  very  com- 
monly even  where  there  seems  at  first  sight  reason  to  suppose 
fraud,  it  will  turn  out  on  closer  examination  that  the  original 
nucleus  of  the  legend  may  have  involved  nothing  of  the  kind ; 
and  that  there  has  only  been  a  subsequent  accretion  of  marvel- 
lous circumstances  from  one  or  more  of  the  sources  abovemen- 
tioned.  We  should  therefore  be  religiously  careful  never  to 
assert  nor  to  suppose  any  fraud  unless  we  are  absolutely  com- 
pelled to  do  so. 

In  conclusion,  with  regard  to  this  whole  subject,  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  all  matters  of  fact  which  are  not  actually  at- 
tested by  holy  Scripture,  or  by  clear  and  universal  tradition  from 
the  beginning,  are  by  their  very  nature  excluded  from  the  pro- 
vince of  faith.  Not  only  individuals  but  Councils,  not  only 
local  Councils  but  CEcumenical  Councils,  and  the  Church  herself 
in  any  country,  or  in  all  countries  at  once,  may  err  concerning 
matters  of  fact,  even  though  these  last  be  ever  so  closely  con- 
nected with  religion.  A  General  Council,  for  instance,  stigma- 
tizes such  and  such  Popes  as  heretics :  but  it  is  quite  possible 
notwithstanding  that  in  point  of  fact  these  Popes  were  personally 
orthodox.  Another  Council,  or  the  Church  diffused,  has  acknow- 
ledged certain  individuals  for  Saints  :  yet  they  may  for  all  that 
have  been  sinners  or  concealed  heretics.  Certain  passages  are 
cited  by  a  General  Council  in  support  of  this  or  that  doctrine, 


OF    CREDULITY    AND    SUPERSTITION.  283 

or  certain  facts  are  alleged  from  history  :  nevertheless  the  pas- 
sages may  be  spurious  or  misinterpreted  ;  and  the  facts  may  have 
had  no  real  existence.  The  Church  of  a  certain  age  may  have 
supposed  the  earth  to  be  fixed,  and  the  sun  to  move  round  it, 
and  that  to  assert  the  contrary  was  to  contradict  the  Divine 
Scriptures  :  but  the  Church  in  that  case  was  mistaken.  In  just 
the  same  way,  whatever  assertions  of  supernatural  occurrences 
have  been  received  either  by  Popes  or  Councils,  or  even  by  the 
Church  diffused,  they  are  none  the  less  open  to  criticism  on  that 
account  as  questions  of  fact.  And  whatever  developments  of 
idea,  whatever  customs,  anniversary  celebrations,  Oflfices,  pilgrim- 
ages, or  further  reputed  miracles,  may  have  followed  upon  their 
belief  and  reception,  all  these  things  resting  only  on  a  question 
of  fact  are,  together  with  the  fact  itself,  open  to  examination  and 
criticism,  without  any  danger  of  heresy.  And  if  in  any  such 
case  the  supposed  fact  itself,  for  instance,  the  transportation  of 
the  House  of  Loretto,  or  the  Introduction  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
into  the  Temple,  and  her  being  fed  there  by  Angels,  or  her  As- 
sumption in  the  body,  or  her  Immaculate  Conception,  came  to  be 
doubted  or  disbelieved,  all  that  has  been  built  upon  such  sup- 
posed facts  might  fall  with  the  belief  of  the  facts  themselves, 
without  the  true  doctrinal  infallibility  of  the  Church  suffering 
thereby  any  danger  or  curtailment.  Nor  would  it  make  the 
least  difference  if  the  Church  should  have  decreed  at  any  time 
the  dominant  opinion  concerning  any  such  matters  of  fact  to  be 
an  article  of  faith,  any  more  than  if  she  had  decreed  the  Coper- 
nical  opinion  to  be  a  heresy,  and  the  older  theory  to  be  a  part 
of  the  faith.  The  promise  which  endues  her  with  infallibility 
for  teaching  the  true  and  necessary  faith  and  for  condemning 
heresy  does  not  necessarily  secure  her  against  such  errors. 


DISSERTATION  XX. 

OF    FORMALISM    AS    IMPUTED    TO    THE    EASTERN    CHURCH. 

Man  being  himself  a  compound  of  soul  and  body,  his  religion 
must  have  its  form  or  body  as  well  as  its  life  or  spirit :  and  reli- 
gion is  then  in  a  good  and  healthy  state  when  the  inward  life, 
whether  of  the  individual  or  the  Church,  is  vigorous  enough  to 
embody  itself  according  to  occasion  in  suitable  forms ;  and 
when  such  forms  as  preexist,  and  have  not  by  any  change  of 
circumstances  become  unsuitable,  are  used  and  animated  by  the 
same  spirit  which  originally  produced  them. 

Nevertheless,  every  human  energy  being  liable  to  waste  itself 
and  to  decay,  the  Church  herself  also,  so  far  as  she  is  human,  is 
subject  to  this  same  infirmity.  That  inner  life  which  in  Apos- 
tolic or  early  times  threw  up  such  holy  and  divine  forms,  and 
could  scarcely  find  forms  adequate  to  its  own  strength  and  rich- 
ness, afterwards  gradually  decayed,  and  left  the  forms  more  or 
less  hollow  and  empty,  but  still  useful  to  mark  to  a  degenerate 
age  a  higher  standard  than  its  own,  and  to  communicate  in 
some  degree  to  the  souls  of  them  that  should  continue  to  use 
them  the  shadow,  the  echo,  the  faintly  reproduced  image,  of  that 
full  volume  of  living  energy  from  which  they  originally  came. 

The  Apostles  and  their  company,  after  sufiering  for  the  first 
time  persecution  for  the  name  of  Christ,  prayed  together  in 
the  Upper  Chamber  on  Mount  Sion,  lifting  up  their  voice  with 
one  accord  in  the  words  which  are  still  preserved  to  us :  And 
"  when  they  had  prayed,  the  place  was  shaken  where  they  were 
assembled  together,  and  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.'^  Cornelius  the  Centurion  and  his  friends  listened  not 
with  the  outward  ear  only,  but  with  hearts  duly  prepared,  to 
the  words  spoken  by  Peter,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  them 


OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH.       285 

even  before  they  were  Baptized  with  water  in  the  Name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Paul  and  Silas  sang  praises  to  God  at  midnight  in 
the  prison  at  Philippi,  using  certain  words,  and  the  prisoners 
heard  them  :  And  suddenly  there  was  a  great  earthquake,  so 
that  the  foundations  of  the  prison  were  shaken,  and  the  doors 
opened,  and  every  one's  bands  loosed  :  and  the  keeper  of  the 
prison  with  all  his  house  was  Baptized.  In  these  cases  it  was 
from  the  fulness  of  the  heart  and  spirit  that  the  mouth  spake, 
and  the  eflfect  was  accordingly. 

Nor  was  such  concurrence  and  unison  of  the  inward  spirit 
with  the  outward  word  or  act  of  religion,  and  such  mighty  effect, 
confined  to  cases  where  the  words  were  used  only  once  :  but  in 
the  primitive  Apostolic  Church  that  living  spirit  which  first 
suggested  the  words  and  forms  of  her  Liturgies  and  Ritual 
accompanied  also  their  habitual  use. 

Thus  when  in  the  darkness  of  the  night,  long  before  dawn, 
the  spiritual  children  of  Sarah  persecuted  by  the  children  of  the 
bondwoman,  and  from  among  the  Gentile  Christians  members 
of  divided  households,  wives  illtreated  by  their  husbands,  chU- 
dren  threatened  or  cast  out  by  their  parents,  slaves  oppressed 
by  their  masters,  citizens  hunted  out  and  accused  by  their  neigh- 
bours, subjects  proscribed  by  the  tyrants  of  this  world,  met 
with  difficulty  and  apprehension  in  the  catacombs  under  some 
great  city,  or  in  the  retired  house  of  some  brethren  in  the  out- 
skirts, and  the  'E^a^uXixoc  or  Six  Psalms^  at  the  beginning  of 
Matins  were  read  with  a  devout  and  meditative  voice  by  the 
Superior,  containing  the  complaints  and  meditations  of  the 
Messiah,  the  perfect  man,  under  the  sorrows  and  afflictions  of 
His  humanity  and  the  assaults  of  His  enemies,  all  who  were 
present  knew  that  this  voice  was  not  only  from  the  Messiah,  the 
Head,  but  also  from  the  Church  His  Body  :  and  each  one  of 
them  in  particular  found  his  or  her  own  spiritual  application  of 
the  verses  of  those  Psalms  according  to  the  personal  troubles 
and  necessities  of  each ;  and  his  own  comfort  and  strength  in 
that  mixture  of  more  cheerful  prayer  and  meditation  with 
which  one  of  those  Psalms  (Psalm  p/3',)  tempers  the  others. 

And  when  after  the  Six  Psalms  the  reading  was  succeeded  by 

*  Psalms  iii.,  xxxviii.,  Ixii.,  Ixxxvii.,  ciii.,  cxliii.  In  the  LXX.  7',  Xf, 
1(3',  wr',  p/3',  piuP'. 


286       OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH. 

singing,  and  the  Church,  instead  of  dwclhng  on  the  afflictions  of 
her  humanity,  changed  her  note,  and  poured  forth  in  the  words 
of  Psalm  cxviii,  (p<^'.)  the  Eucharistic  confession  of  her  faith, 
with  a  firm  confidence  of  being  more  than  conqueror  in  her  war- 
fare with  the  Jewish  and  heathen  world,  and  the  congregation 
present,  or  the  singers,  repeated  as  a  burden  at  intervals  between 
every  two  or  three  verses,  "  God  is  the  Lord  who  hath  showed  us 
light:  Blessed  be  He  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord!" 
they  might  feel  the  old  synagogue  to  be  overturned,  and  the 
idolatrous  city  overhead  on  her  seven  hills  with  the  whole  empire 
of  the  heathen  world  to  be  shaken  to  their  centre  from  beneath. 

So  also  in  the  Psalms  cxxxv.  cxxxvi,  cxxxvii,  or  xlv.  (^xS',  pXe', 
qXr',  or  JU.S',)  called  IloXusXeog,  sung  to  heighten  the  celebration  of 
Sundays  and  Festivals;  which,  while  similar  in  tone  to  the  preced- 
ing, are  more  particular  in  the  enumeration  of  the  noble  acts  of 
God  in  old  time,  foreshadowing  those  of  the  Christian  Dispensa- 
tion, and  in  their  openly  triumphing  over  the  idols  of  the  heathen: 
We  cannot  doubt  that  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  "  wonders  of  old 
time  "  celebrated  in  these  Psalms,  as  well  as  their  pointed  appli- 
cation to  the  present  conflict  with  heathenism,  was  felt  by  the 
assembled  worshippers  of  the  first  centuries.  And  the  music 
to  which  these  Psalms  are  sung,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Laud 
Psalms  (cxlviii.  cxlix.  el.)  the  praises  of  which  are  more  gene- 
ral, (and  which  were  no  doubt  always  sung  at  length,)  and  that 
of  the  "  Great  Doxology"  carries  with  it  still  sensible  traces  of  that 
spirit  with  which  these  singings  were  originally  accompanied. 

In  the  celebration  of  the  Divine  Liturgy  the  people  doubtless 
answered  intelligently  to  each  petition  of  the  Common  Prayers 
or  '£xT£ve»5  bidden  by  the  Deacon  :  and  they  heard  distinctly 
pronounced  "  with  all  his  might  '^  by  the  Bishop  or  Priest  those 
most  eloquent  and  solemn  doxologies  and  thanksgivings,  which 
were  at  first  so  full  and  detailed  (though  afterwards  said  inau- 
dibly,  and  curtailed,  and  replaced  for  the  laity  by  singings  with- 
out the  veil,)  that  besides  being  a  worthy  sacrifice  of  praise  on 
the  part  of  the  whole  assembled  Church,  clergy  and  laity,  they 
were  also  for  each  individual  Christian  a  most  rich  instruction 
and  remembrance  of  the  whole  substance  of  his  faith.  Having 
heard  with  the  ear  and  joined  with  the  heart  in  the  introductory 
part  of    these  thanksgivings,   relating  to  the  mystery  of  the 


OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH.       287 

Trinity  and  to  the  CreatioD,  they  joined  also  with  the  Bishop 
and  with  his  Con-celebrating  Priests,  and  with  all  the  Heavenly 
Host  assisting  invisibly  around  the  Altar,  in  that  Hymn  of  the 
Angels  "  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,"  &c.,  knowing  what  they  did,  and 
with  whom  they  were  joining,  and  through  what  preparatory 
words  they  had  come  to  that  outburst  of  praise.  And  in  like 
manner,  after  having  heard  the  Eucharistic  commemoration  re- 
specting the  whole  economy  for  the  recovery  of  man  after  the 
Fall,  down  to  the  Incarnation  and  the  Institution  of  the  Myste- 
ries, and  having  witnessed  the  Oblation  of  the  creatures  of  bread 
and  wine,  the  antitypes  of  the  heavenly  Sacrifice,  and  the  Invo- 
cation of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  descend  on  them  and  to  change 
them,  they  responded  with  awe,  but  with  their  whole  hearts, 
that  intelligent  "  Amen,"  which  the  Apostle  requires.  So  too 
did  they  after  the  intercessory  Prayers  for  the  departed,  and  for 
the  living,  and  for  the  whole  Church,  which  followed  after  the 
Consecration,  and  which  derived  such  increase  of  solemnity  and 
efficacy  from  the  presence  of  the  aweful  and  adorable  Mysteries 
then  "  lying  in  open  view "  on  the  altar.  And  again,  in  the 
united  recitation  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  immediately  before  the 
Communion,  they  prayed  in  earnest  for  the  heavenly  and  super- 
substantial  Bread,  to  be  received  by  all  (unless  prevented  by 
some  sufficient  cause,)  to  be  the  staff  of  their  spiritual  life. 
After  so  assisting,  and  at  such  a  Liturgy,  and  after  so  Commu- 
nicating, they  retired  ready  either  to  do  zealously  such  good 
works  as  the  day  might  have  in  store  for  them,  or  to  suffer 
firmly  and  cheerfully  every  persecution  which  might  befall  them 
for  the  Name  of  Christ. 

And  at  Vespers,  after  the  reading  of  a  Psalm  (Psalm  civ.  gy.') 
fit  for  the  commencement  of  the  day  or  the  week,  concerning 
Creation  and  the  renewal  of  Creation,  and  after  the  singing  of 
other  Psalms  (141,  142,  130,  117.  In  the  LXX.  pju.',  pi,.u', 
px^',  p«s-',)  not  unlike  the  'E^a\|/aXiw,&5  of  the  Matins,  in  which 
"  prayer  was  set  forth  as  the  incense,  and  the  lifting  up  of  pure 
hands  was  an  evening  sacrifice,"  having  come  to  the  setting  of 
the  sun,  and  seen  the  star  of  evening,  and  lighted  the  lights  of 
the  church,  the  Clergy  coming  out  and  standing  in  a  broad  curve 
Eastwards,  sang  that  glorious  and  most  ancient  Hymn,  "  ^wg 
IXapov,"  X.  T.  X.  {"  O  cheerful  Light,"  &c.)  to  the  eternal  and  con- 


288       OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH. 

substantial  Effulgence  of  the  Father^  of  Whom  the  visible  light 
is  a  symbol;  glorifying  Him  together  with  the  Father,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost,  one  God  :  a  hymn  full-orbed,  mellow,  calm, 
deeptoned  (as  expressing  the  depth  of  the  mystery,)  slow  (as 
being  contemplative,)  rich  with  the  splendour  of  vestments^  ac- 
companied by  the  Gospel  and  by  Incense  representing  prayer 
and  praise,  sung  by  the  Elders  the  first  half  standing  without, 
the  latter  half  after  all  going  up  into  the  Sanctuary,  as  the 
doxology  of  the  Holy  Trinity  begun  in  the  Church  on  earth 
below,  and  to  be  finished  and  continued  for  ever  in  heaven. 

In  the  Greater  'A-Trotsimov  or  Compline,  which  is  used  at  cer- 
tain seasons,  there  is  a  manifest  relic  of  those  primitive  times 
when  the  Church  was  in  the  catacombs  under  Jewish  and  heathen 
persecution.  And  it  is  impossible  to  read  or  to  hear  the  singing 
of  this  relic  without  feeling  ourselves  to  be  as  it  were  breathed 
upon  by  the  breath  of  that  living  energy  which  first  selected 
and  accommodated  its  words  from  those  of  the  Prophet  Isaiah : 

"  iV/s5'  y]ju.aJv  5  6eo:,"  x.  t.  X.  In  the  Syriac  more  strikingly, 
"  Immdnu-El ! "  that  is,  "  God  is  with  tis  !  Understand,  O  ye 
nations,  and  submit  yourselves  :  For  God  is  with  us  ! "  "  Ki  Im- 
mdnu-El !  '^  This  is  sung  first  by  the  Choir  on  one  side. 
Then  the  same  a  second  time  by  the  Choir  on  the  other  side. 
Then  as  follows,  verse  and  verse  alternately  : 

"  Give  ear  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth  :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  Ye  mighty,  submit  yourselves  :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  For  if  ye  wax  powerful  again,  ye  shall  again  be  broken  in 
pieces  :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  And  though  ye  take  counsel  together,  the  Lord  shall  bring  it 
to  nought :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  And  if  ye  speak  any  word,  it  shall  not  stand :  For  God  is 
with  us ! 

"  Your  terror  will  we  not  fear,  neither  be  troubled :  For  God  is 
with  us ! 

"  But  the  Lord  our  God,  Him  will  we  sanctify,  and  He  shall 
be  our  fear  :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  And  if  I  trust  in  Him,  He  shall  be  unto  me  for  a  sanctuary : 
For  God  is  ivith  us ! 

"And  I  will  trust  in  Him,  and  I  shall  be  saved  through  Him  : 
For  God  is  with  us  ! 


OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH.       289 

"  Behold  I,  and  the  children  whom  the  Lord  hath  given  me : 
For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  The  people  that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  a  great  light : 
For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  We  that  dwelt  in  the  valley  and  shadoiv  of  death,  upon  us 
hath  the  light  shined :  For  God  is  with  us ! 

"  For  unto  us  a  Child  is  born,  unto  us  a  So7i  is  given :  For 
God  is  with  us  ! 

"  On  Whose  shoulder  is  the  government :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  And  of  His  peace  there  is  no  end :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  And  His  name  shall  be  called  The  Messenger  of  the  Great 
Counsel :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  Wonderful,  Counsellor  :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  The  mighty  God,  the  Lord  of  power,  the  Prince  of  peace  : 
For  God  is  ivith  us  ! 

"  The  Father  of  the  world  to  come  :  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy 
Ghost  .•  For  God  is  with  us  ! 

"  Both  now,  and  ever,  and  world  without  end.  Amen :  For 
God  is  with  us  ! 

(And  lastly  both  the  Choirs  sing  together)  "  For  God  is 
with  us  F^  {"Ki  Immdnu-El !") 

After  the  earliest  and  golden  ages  of  the  Church,  during  which 
she  was  subject  to  persecution,  and  during  which  her  ritual  wor- 
ship and  the  writings  of  her  Saints,  like  their  lives,  were  almost 
wholly  spiritual  and  practical,  there  followed  in  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  another  phase  of  character,  in  which  the  divine 
depth  and  earnestness  of  the  ancients,  without  ceasing  altogether 
to  exist,  is  clothed  in  a  garb  of  intellectual,  rhetorical,  and  po- 
etical cultivation.  Many  touching  Prayers,  eloquent  and  in- 
structive Homilies,  STiy^ripx  to  be  sung  at  '•  Kvpis,  sxeKpa^cf"  in 
the  Vespers  on  Sundays  and  chief  Festivals,  'ATroa-riy^a,  TpoTrocpia 
'AiroXvTUioi,  Ka.^ltry.'XTu  perhaps,  and  Sriyy^pot  for  the  Laud 
Psalms  at  Matins,  and  probably  strings  of  Kovrax-ia.  and  OWoi, 
were  produced  in  this  second  period.  Nor  is  there  in  the  ritual 
and  homiletical  compositions  of  this  period,  though  their  merit  is 
certainly  of  a  lower  and  more  humankind  than  that  of  the  Divinely 
inspired  Scriptures,  or  the  productions  of  the  Apostolic  age,  any 
appearance  of  hollowness  or  unreality.  Nor,  so  far  as  we  can 
judge,  is  there  any  reason  to  doubt  that  they  who  used  the  Prayers 


290   OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH. 

and  sang  the  Hymns  of  this  period  used  them  upon  the  whole 
with  the  understanding  and  the  spirit,  as  well  as  with  the  lips. 

Later,  after  the  composition  of  the  first  "  Kanuns,"  (which  are 
sets  of  nine  ''  Odes ''  {'P.Wt)  to  be  sung  with  the  nine  Propheti- 
cal and  Evangelical   Hj^mns,  the  TpoT:y.pix  of  each  '/25^  being 
made  or  turned   so  as  to  answer  to  the  syllables  and  accents  of 
its  Elpixos-)  that  is,  after  the  time  of  St.  Andrew  of  Crete  and 
St.  Cosmas,  we  come  to  an  imitative  period ;  in  which  the  cere- 
monial of  the  Byzantine    Court,   with    all   its   hyperbole   and 
hypocrisy,  was  carried  into  the  Church ;  in  which  many  doubt- 
ful miracles  and  legends,   and  particular   Icons,  gained  exten- 
sive honour  through  worldly  adulation  and  Court  influence ;  in 
which   various   opinions  based  on  spurious  or  doubtful  writings 
became  parts  of  the  popular  belief;  in  which,  for  the  sake  of  a 
certain  uniformity  or  symmetry  in   the  ritual,  vast  numbers  of 
Kanons  and  other  Singings  were  composed  for  all  the  Saints  of 
the  Daily  Calendar  throughout  the  year  on  the  model  of  the  ear- 
lier compositions  of  the  same  sort :  and  the  monastic  ritual, 
calculated  for  communities  v/hich  should  employ  one  third  part 
of  the  twenty-four  hours  of  the  day  and  night  in  the  Services  of 
the  Church,  w^as  introduced  more  or  less  into  general  use  even 
in  common  churches.     During  this  period,  which  we  may  fix 
from  the  end  of  the  eighth  to  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century, 
we  find  a  great  deterioration   in  the  quality  of  the   additions 
made  to  the  ritual,  and  a  vast  growth  of  formalism  and  unre- 
ality in  their  actual  use.     In  place  of  deep,   warm,  and  just 
poetry,  we  have  often  cold,  empty,  and  hyperbolical  rhapsodies. 
And  the  readings  and   singings  being  felt  to  be  too  long  for  a 
full  and  proper  performance  of  them,  men   commonly  fell  into 
a  perfunctory  and  merely  external  performance  of  the  ritual,  or 
of  many   parts  of  it ;  an  abuse  which  was  in  still  later  times 
brought  to  its  climax  by  the  gradual  corruption   and  change  of 
the  Hellenic  language  into  the  modern   Romaic,   so  that  not 
only  were  the  Psalter  and  the  lesser  Offices,  instead  of  being  read 
devoutly,  gabbled  over  with  heathenish  rapidity,  and  the  Kanons 
or  strings  of  hymns,  instead  of  being  sung,  read  or  gabbled  in 
the  same  manner,  but  all  this  was  done,  and  the  rest  of  the  Ser- 
vice was  performed,  in   a  language  no  longer  familiar  to  the 
people,  and  only  partly  intelligible  to  them,  nor  to  them  only, 
but  even  to  the  majority  of  the  Clerics  and  Singers. 


OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH.       291 

But  without  pursuing  into  further  details  this  historical  sketch 
of  the  rise  and  growth  of  formalism  in  the  Services  of  the 
Church,  we  will  now  offer  some  reflections  on  the  present  state 
of  ritual  worship  in  the  Eastern  Church  as  contemplated  from  a 
practical  and  popular  point  of  view. 

"  God  is  a  Spirit ;  and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship 
Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  This  text  perversely  interpreted 
by  some  sectaries  is  urged  as  an  argument  against  all  the  ritual 
forms  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  Churches,  and  against  the  whole 
body  of  religion.  In  the  same  way  another  text,  "When  ye 
pray,  use  not  vain  repetitions  as  the  heathen  do,  for  they  think 
they  shall  be  heard  for  their  much  speaking/'  is  made  into 
an  argument  for  attacking  repetitions  which  are  not  always  nor 
necessarily  vain.  And  that  of  St.  Paul,  "  I  had  rather  speak  five 
words  in  the  church  in  a  known  tongue  than  ten  thousand  words 
in  an  unknown  tongue,"  is  made  to  prove  the  duty  of  attempt- 
ing that  which  is  impossible,  namely,  to  make  all  the  Services  of 
the  Church  perfectly  audible  and  perfectly  inteUigible  to  all  wor- 
shippers, though  there  may  often  be  a  mixture  of  different  tongues, 
and  though  the  languages  themselves  may  be  for  ever  changing. 
Still,  these  perverse  interpretations  notwithstanding,  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  a  sincere  and  practical  desire  and  effort  to  act  in  the 
spirit  of  these  texts.  And  there  is  such  a  thing  as  an  undue 
excess  of  outward  forms  and  repetitious  in  Divine  worship. 

It  may  be  not  uninstructive  for  a  member  of  the  Eastern 
Church  to  be  informed  in  what  light  some  parts  of  his  religious 
worship  now  appear  to  Anglicans,  whose  faults  are  of  a  nature 
contrary  to  those  of  the  Easterns,  inasmuch  as  the  Anglicans 
have  destroyed  a  great  part  of  the  outward  forms  of  religion, 
(and  for  this  no  doubt  suffer  great  spiritual  loss,)  but  who  have  the 
merit  of  being  often  sincere  and  serious  in  what  they  have  re- 
tained, and  are  far  removed  (even  to  the  contrary  extreme,) 
from  outward  formalism,  superstition,  or  hypocrisy.  "  Fas  est 
et  ah  hoste  doceri."  None  are  so  perfect  but  they  may  learn 
something  from  what  is  said  against  them  even  by  the  malice  of 
enemies.  And  much  more  may  they  learn  from  the  serious  ob- 
jections of  erring  brethren,  whose  very  errors  are  perhaps  only 
excessive  reactions  occasioned  by  the  faults  of  older  Churches. 

If  an  Anglican  then  could  be  taken  into  a  Greek  or  Russian 

u  2 


292   O?  FORMALISM  AS  lMl'Uii:.l>  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH. 

church  just  at  such  parts  of  the  Services  as  the  follov/ing  :  for 
the  reading  of  the  Gospel^  and  often  also  of  the  Apostle,  for  the 
singing  of  the  Great  Doxology  at  Matins,  or  of  the  "  <Pxg  Wapov" 
on  any  great  festival  at  Vespers,  or  during  any  of  the  Singings 
of  the  Vespers  or  Matins,  or  at  almost  any  part  of  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  Liturgy,  the  impression  produced  would  certainly  be 
one  of  reverence  and  respect.  On  the  contrary,  if  he  chanced 
to  be  present  at  the  reading  of  the  lesser  Services,  as  the  Hours, 
or  Compline,  or  a  ZTap^xXrjcrjf,  at  the  reading  of  the  Cathisms 
of  the  Psalter  (that  is,  of  the  divisions  of  the  Psalter  as  ap- 
pointed to  be  read  in  course,)  or  of  the  Kanons,  he  would  be 
utterly  annoyed  and  shocked.  He  would  say  "  If  ever  God  was 
mocked  with  a  lip-service  He  is  so  assuredly  now,  and  in  the 
Greek  Church.  Neither  Jewish  Rabbis  nor  Buddhist  priests 
of  the  heathen  can  gabble  over  their  unspiritual  caricature  of 
worship  in  a  more  profane  way."  No  words  could  be  found  too 
strong,  none  indeed  strong  enough,  to  express  what  he  would 
feel :  and  the  more  serious  and  religious  the  observer,  the  deeper 
would  be  his  pain  and  wonder.  As  regards  some  other  things, 
such  as  the  reading  of  the  'E^avf/aAjaoj  at  Matius,  or  of  the  Intro- 
ductory Psalm  at  Vespers,  the  bidding  of  the  'Exxevsic,  and  the 
responding  to  these,  or  the  performance  of  any  occasional  Offices, 
as  a  Baptism,  a  Wedding,  or  a  Funeral,  the  impression  produced 
would  vary  much  according  to  the  manner  and  spirit  of  the 
Priest  officiating.  Sometimes  the  stranger  would  hear  only  a 
slovenly  and  profane  gabbling,  as  in  the  preceding  cases :  some- 
times the  performance  would  not  seem  altogether  irreligious. 
The  saying  of  the  Introductory  and  Concluding  Prayers  (that  is, 
of  the  ^'  TpKTuyiO'j,'''  K.  T.  A.  to  the  end  of  TlxTsp  i^|xxv)  in  every 
Office  would  almost  always  strike  him  in  the  worst  light.  As 
for  the  style  of  singing,  that  of  the  Russians  would  captivate 
him  at  once  by  its  sweetness  and  harmony,  and  that  of  the 
Greeks  would  repel  him  by  its  nasal  discord.  But  such  merits 
or  defects  are  different  things  from  devoutness  and  irreverence. 

As  for  the  congregation,  a  stranger  would  be  wearied  by  the 
perpetual  multi])lication  of  manual  gestures,  by  the  triple  cross- 
ing repeated  so  often  and  with  such  rapidity  of  the  fingers  that 
his  eye  could  scarcely  follow  it.  He  would  notice,  at  least  here 
at  Athens,  a  too  general  neglect  of  attendance  at  Divine  worship, 


OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH.       393 

and  the  practice  of  coining  in  only  about  the  beginning  of  tbe 
Liturgy,  or  a  little  before ;  so  as  to  assist  neither  at  Vespers  nor 
at  Matins.  He  would  see  men  coming  in  not  only  with  their 
heads  covered  after  the  Turkish  custom,  and  contrary  to  the 
Apostle's  injunction,  with  the  fez,  but  even  with  Franldsh  hats, 
walking  in  and  out,  talking,  laughing,  and  spitting  during  the 
Service :  a  confused  crowd  pressing  upon  one  another  to  kiss 
the  Icons  at  the  moment  that  the  primitive  Christians  Commu- 
nicated in  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  ;  and  numbers  leaving 
the  church  almost  as  soon  as  the  Consecration  is  over,  without 
even  waiting  for  the  Dismissal. 

And  if  he  came  to  converse  with  any  on  the  subject  of  their 
religious  worship,  as  wishing  to  ascertain  how  far  they  "  pray 
with  the  spirit,  and  with  the  understanding  also,"  he  would  find 
that  not  only  are  the  Services  now,  whether  conducted  in  Slavonic 
or  in  Hellenic,  in  a  great  measure  unintelligible  to  the  people  (as 
is  the  case  also  with  those  of  the  Latins,  the  Armenians,  the 
Syrians,  the  Copts  and  Abyssinians,  and  the  Nestorians,)  but 
also  that,  while  secular  schools  are  being  founded  and  education 
extended,  there  is  little  or  no  effort  made  to  give  to  the  young 
a  knowledge  of  the  Church  dialect.  Instead  of  learning  that 
the  Church  Books  and  the  Scriptures  are  printed  in  portable 
editions,  and  with  a  Romaic  version  or  commentary  in  parallel 
columns  or  below,  and  that  it  is  considered  the  first  and 
most  indispensable  part  of  a  good  education  to  learn  to  read 
these  books  with  understanding,  he  would  find  these  books 
altogether  neglected,  left  only  to  the  Priests,  Readers,  and 
Singers  who  have  to  use  them  in  the  church ;  while  not  one 
family  in  a  hundred  possesses  any  one  of  them  ;  though  news- 
papers and  other  light  and  pernicious  publications  are  multiply- 
ing on  all  sides. 

Of  Discipline  it  may  be  enough  to  say  that,  with  the  obligation 
of  Confession  to  the  Priest  before  Communicating  existing  nomi- 
nally, as  in  the  Roman  Church,  to  Communicate  thrice  only  in 
the  year  is  the  general  practice.  And  morals,  to  say  the  least, 
appear  to  be  in  no  better  a  state  among  the  "  Orthodox  "  than 
in  the  civilized  countries  of  the  West ;  while  the  higher  classes, 
who  aspire  to  imitate  Western  civilization,  show  a  strong  ten- 
dency to  add  infidelity  to  their  immorality. 

The  abovementioned  defects  and  scandals  which  would  strike 


294       OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  THE  EASTERN  CHURCH. 

a  stranger  are  ofteu  freely  admitted  by  members  of  the  Eastern 
Church  themselves,  most  commonly  lightly,  and  as  a  sort  of 
excuse  for  irrcligiousness  and  general  scepticism,  but  sometimes 
with  an  appearance  of  serious  desire  that  religion  should  again 
become  a  living  reality  instead  of  an  external  superstition.  Such 
persons  will  commonly  regret,  and  with  reason,  that  the  Ser- 
vices of  the  Church  are  too  lengthy  to  be  performed  becomingly; 
and  that,  though  they  are  in  fact  shortened  in  actual  use  in  the 
church  to  suit  the  convenience  of  the  people,  this  is  still  done 
in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  the  Priests  burdened  with  the  duty  of 
reading  over  all  that  is  omitted,  so  that  they  who  ought  to  lead 
the  people  out  of  formalism  are  thus  habituated  to  a  profane 
formalism  themselves.  Again,  they  observe  that  the  Orientals 
have  ever  been  addicted  to  hyperbole,  and  to  outward  expressions 
of  affection  and  respect  to  a  degree  which  of  itself  involves  no 
slight  danger  of  hypocrisy :  and  that  it  is  much  to  be  regretted 
that  this  natural  excess  should  have  been  exaggerated  by  an  in- 
troduction of  all  the  overgrown  ceremonial  of  the  Byzantine 
Court  into  religion,  and  by  its  crystallization  in  the  Church 
even  after  the  Byzantine  Empire  itself  had  ceased  to  exist.  In 
the  same  way  they  observe  of  the  numerous  Kanons  or  strings 
of  hymns,  that  though  there  is  a  great  difference  discernible 
between  the  earlier  and  the  later  of  such  compositions,  yet  so 
long  as  Christians  were  disposed  to  siny  them  (as  they  were  in- 
tended to  be  sung,)  they  might  conduce  to  piety,  and  to  the 
heightening  of  religious  feeling  :  but  when,  having  no  longer 
time  or  disposition  to  sing  them,  they  drop  down  from  singing 
to  reading,  and  from  reading  again  to  gabbling  in  the  church, 
and  from  gabbling  them  over  in  the  Service  to  requiring  the 
Priest  to  read  or  gabble  them  out  of  the  Service  as  a  perfunctory 
duty,  such  things  are  worse  than  useless :  they  become  a  snare 
to  consciences,  and  a  most  pernicious  abomination.  Nor  is  it 
a  slight  source  of  superstition  that  thus  words  and  ideas  which 
were  originally  used  freely  in  sacred  poetry,  and  which  were 
appropriate,  beautiful,  and  edifying  when  so  used,  come  to  be 
misunderstood  and  misapplied  in  a  gross  sense  when  the  poetry 
has  subsided  into  prose.  Poetical  addresses  in  Hymns  come  to 
be  taken  as  prose  prayers :  and  prose  prayers  (which  might  be 
useful  if  said  with  reverent  attention,  and  with  a  spirit  elevated 
to  God,  whether  addressed  to  Him  directly,  or  indirectly  through 


OF  FORMALISM  AS  IMPUTED  TO  TUB  EASTERN  CHURCH.       295 

His  Saints,)  become  an  unholy  superstition  when  said  with  the 
idea  that  the  mere  reciting  them  with  the  hps  is  an  acceptable 
service,  and  may  obtain  blessings  to  the  reciter. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  remarked  as  another  evil,  that 
most  of  those  who,  like  Koriles,  have  once  begun  to  allow  them- 
selves in  such  criticisms,  and  to  propose  schemes  of  curtailment 
and  reform,  have  gone  too  far ;  and  have  shown  a  spirit  tend- 
ing directly  not  only  to  Protestantism,  but  .even  beyond  Pro- 
testantism, to  infidelity ;  a  spirit  ail  the  more  dangerous  because 
concealed  under  a  great  show  of  common  sense,  and  critical 
learning,  and  good  intentions ;  and  because  the  evils  which  it 
attacks,  however  they  may  be  dissembled  by  some,  are  really 
more  or  less  felt  to  exist  by  all. 

On  the  other  hand,  from  traditionary  prejudice  and  habit, 
from  a  desire  to  approve  themselves  to  the  people,  from  regard 
to  personal  and  pecuniary  interests,  and  from  a  sincere  dread  of 
that  Sadduceeism  to  which  any  admission  of  the  ideas  of  criticism 
or  reformation  seems  to  lead,  the  greater  number  take  the  side  of 
the  Pharisees  of  old  :  and,  without  conceding  an  iota,  defend 
honestly  or  hypocritically  the  whole  existing  system,  dead,  rotten, 
and  crystallized  though  it  be ;  and  are  deaf  to  all  arguments  or 
warnings  pointing  out  the  defects  of  their  Communion,  and 
blind  to  all  consequences  of  their  obstinacy. 

Meanwhile  the  enemy  laughs,  and  triumphs.  The  educated 
classes  despise  religion  and  the  Church ;  and  as  a  matter  of 
course  unite  libertinism  of  practice  with  scepticism  of  belief. 
"  The  nation,^^  it  may  indeed  be  replied,  "  is  still  sound  in 
Russia,  and  in  Greece  also.^^  And  perhaps  this  is  true.  But 
when  we  see  only  stationary  ignorance  and  simplicity  in  the 
lower  classes  on  the  side  of  religion,  and  on  the  other  side  the 
powers  of  government,  philosophy,  art,  science,  literature, 
education,  commerce,  and  the  natural  bias  of  man  towards 
material  good,  we  know  how  things  must  end.  Either  the  Church 
then  must  evolve  from  within  herself  a  spirit  and  power 
capable  of  regaining  the  upper  classes  of  society,  or  some  of 
them,  and  arresting  the  spread  of  corruption  among  the  lower,  or 
the  spirit  of  the  upper  classes  will  assuredly  spread  downwards, 
and  the  belief  and  practice  of  religion  will  gradually  disappear  in 
proportion  as  wealth,  civilization,  and  education  come  to  be 
shared  by  greater  numbers. 


DISSERTATION   XXI. 

OF  THE  PARALLEL  AND  CONTRAST  EXISTING  BETWEEN  THE 
REFORMING  SECTARIES  OF  THE  WEST  AND  THE  ANTI-RE- 
FORMING   SECTARIES    OF    THE    EAST    OF    EUROPE. 

The  author  of  discord  and  of  lies  is  consistent  with  himself  only 
in  seeking  to  destroy  the  souls  of  men,  and  in  fighting  against 
God.  In  other  respects  there  is  no  unity  nor  consistency  in  the 
principles  and  conduct  which  he  suggests  to  his  servants.  And 
for  such  men  as  can  reflect  there  is  no  clearer  exposure  of  error 
and  malice,  nor  any  more  persuasive  recommendation  of  truth, 
than  the  perception  of  that  gross  inconsistency  and  self-contra- 
diction which  marks  the  history  of  heresy  and  schism. 

All  men  in  the  West  of  Europe,  the  partizans  of  the  so- 
called  Reformation  and  its  enemies  alike,  know  from  what  causes 
that  vast  movement  originated  ;  namely  from  the  revival  of 
Greek  learning  which  followed  upon  the  conquest  of  Constanti- 
nople by  the  Turks,  and  from  the  invention  of  the  art  of  print- 
ing. But  few  know  what  a  remarkable  parallel  and  contrast  to  this 
movement  was  exhibited  about  a  century  later  by  another  move- 
ment originating  from  the  very  same  causes  in  Russia  ;  nor  how 
these  two  movements  in  the  West  and  in  the  East  and  North  of 
Europe  bear  witness  the  one  against  the  other,  and  so  against 
the  evil  spirit  which  prompted  them  both,  and  in  favour  of  the 
truth  held  in  common  by  those  two  Churches  or  parts  of  the 
Church  against  which  they  respectively  rebelled. 

In  the  West  many  of  the  people,  and  some  even  of  the  clergy, 
intoxicated  by  the  new  light  of  the  revival  of  learning,  and 
by  the  multiplication  of  printed  books,  especially  of  the 
Divine  Scriptures,  and  taking  occasion  from  a  certain  corruption 
of  morals  and  relaxation  of  discipline,  and  from  other  abuses 


PARALLEL    BETWEEN  WESTERN  AND  RUSSIAN  SECTS.         297 

really  prevalent,  asserted  that  religion  was  corrupted  even  in  its 
essential  doctrines.     They  had  the  Scriptures  and  the  testimonies 
of  antiquity  now  in  their  own  hands  :  they  could  read  and  judge 
for  themselves  :  and  they  demanded   not  only  a  reformation  in 
things  superficial  and  secondary,  but  even  an   essential  change. 
And  when  in  answer  to  this  demand  the  Roman  Pontiff  and  the 
Bishops,  with   the  Emperor  of  Germany  and  other   Sovereigns, 
objected  that  the  true  religion  was  a  thing  essentially  unchange- 
able ;  and  that  if  it  had  really  been  corrupted  in   such  manner 
as   was  alleged,   it   must   have  failed    altogether,    contrary  to 
Christ^s  promise,  and  could  never   more  be  recovered  or  re- 
formed ;  and  for  this  reason  refused  to  yield  what  was  demanded, 
the  people  roared  out  like  madmen  that  the  Church  had  become 
Babylon,  and  that  the  Pope  was  Antichrist,  and  separated  them- 
selves, and  came  out   by  millions.     And  this  separation  they 
called  a  "  Reformation,"  which  upon  the  whole  was  distinguished 
into  two  great  sects  or  families  of  sects,  differing  both  in  spirit 
and  in  outward  forms  the  one  from  the  other.     For  on  the  one 
hand  many  millions  followed  Luther  who  was  a  Priest,  though 
apostate ;  and  these  preserved  in  some  measure  the  idea   and 
semblance  of  an  outward  religion,  with  Priesthood,  Sacraments, 
and  ritual,  as   may   still   be  seen  among  them   in  some   parts, 
especially  in  the  Scandinavian  peninsula.     But  the  other  half  of 
the  Reformation,  the  Calvinistic,  followed  a  man  who  was  not 
either  Priest  or  Deacon,  and  whose  temper  and  doctrine  struck 
at  the  root  of  all  those  externals  which  the  older  and  more 
moderate  Lutherans,  however  inconsistently,  retained.     In  con- 
sideration of  this  difference  between  the  two  heresiarchs  them- 
selves, and  between  the  two  branches  of  the  Reformation  which 
were  named  from  them  respectively,  one  may  say  that  the  more 
moderate   Reformation  of  Luther  was  in   a  certain  loose   sense 
Presbyterian  or   Sacerdotal,  while  Calvinism  was,  comparatively 
speaking,  destitute  of  the  idea  of  Presbytery  or  Priesthood. 

In  Russia  also  there  had  been  some  dark  ages  of  ignorance 
and  comparative  isolation,  which  were  succeeded,  as  in  the  West, 
by  a  gradual  revival  of  learning  consequent  upon  the  capture  of 
Constantinople  by  the  Turks,  and  the  invention  of  the  art  of 
printing.  Sophia  the  heiress  of  the  Palaeologi  brought  with  her 
to  John  III.  of  Moscow  a  rich  library  of  Greek  manuscript  books. 


298       OF  TUE  PARALLEL  AND  CONTRAST  EXISTING  BETWEEN 

And  the  learned  monk  Maximus,  librarian   for  a  time  to  her 
son  Basil  Ivanovich,  lived   many  years  in  Russia,   contending 
both  by  word  of  mouth  and  by  writing  against  the  ignorance 
then  prevalent.     And  when  for  his  learning,  and  for  his  Chris- 
tian boldness  in  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteousness,  he  was 
rewarded  with  long  and  cruel  persecutions  and  imprisonment, 
he  found  in  the  harshness  of  that  rude  and  dark  age  an  occasion 
not  for  sowing  divisions  among  others,  but  for  obtaining  sanctifi- 
cation  to  himself.     A  contemporary  of  Luther  and   Calvin,  he 
left  behind  him  his  good  name  and  his  learned  writings  to  bear 
fruit  and  to  lend  a  powerful  aid  towards  a  real  Reformation  in 
another  generation,  when  there  should  be  a  Russian  Primate 
and  a  Tsar  capable  of  undertaking  and  effecting  it.    This  was  to 
be  a  full  century  after  his  death,  when   it  was  already  under- 
stood how   serviceable  the  art    of  printing  might    become  to 
religion,  and  when  a  beginning  had  already  been  made  under 
the  Patriarch  of  Moscow  Joseph  of  printing,  though  inaccurately, 
the  Slavonic  Service-books  of  the  Church.     The  Patriarch  Nicon, 
who  succeeded  Joseph  in  1653,  understood  not  only  how  im- 
portant was  the  art  of  printing,  but  also  how  necessary  was 
sound  learning  in  order  to  a  right  and  profitable  use  of  it. 
Through  the  agency  of  clerks  whom  he  sent  into  the  Levant  for 
Ecclesiastical  study  and  observation  he  procured   an  addition  of 
above  500  Greek  books  to  those  that  were  already  at  IMoscow ; 
and  at  the  same  time  he   retained  about  himself  learned  Greeks 
to  assist  in  collating  and  translating  books,  for  the  printing  of 
which  he  kept  two  printing-presses   employed  under  his  own 
direction.     This  Patriarch  in  the  year  1656,  with  the  concur- 
rence of  the  Tsar  Alexis  Michaelovich,  held  a  Synod  of  the  Rus- 
sian Bishops,  and  having  collated  the  text  of  the  Slavonic  Service- 
books  and  Rituals  with  the  original  Greek  of  the  MSS.  which 
had  been  brought  from  the  Levant,  and  having  discovered  many 
corruptions,  more   or  less  considerable,  in   the   received    text, 
printed  for  use  in  all  the  churches  a  corrected  edition.     For  he 
knew  that  though  in  essential  doctrine  and  discipline  the  tra- 
dition of  the  faith   is  unchangeable,  still  in  secondary  matters, 
such  as  these  were,  there   might  be  need  of  reformation ;  and 
that  a  correct  printed  text  obtained  by  collation  of  the  more 
recent  Slavonic  MSS.  with  the  older,   and  of  both  with  the 


THE  SECTARIES  OF  WESTERN  AND  EASTERN  EUROPE.        299 

original  Greek,  was  to  be  preferred  to  one  deformed  by  the 
errors  of  copyists  or  by  designed  variations.  But  many  of  the 
people  hereupon,  and  some  even  of  the  clergy,  insisted  that 
religion  was  unchangeable  not  only  in  its  essence,  but  even  in 
such  secondary  matters  as  these.  And  when  they  were  not 
listened  to,  they  roared  out,  like  madmen,  that  the  Church  had 
become  Babylon,  and  that  the  Patriarch  was  Antichrist ;  and 
separated  themselves,  and  came  out  by  millions.  And  this 
separation  and  refusal  of  all  change  or  reformation  they  called  a 
preservation  of  the  Old  Faith  and  the  Old  Ceremonies.  And 
the  whole  Schism  was  divided  and  distinguished  outwardly  into 
two  great  branches,  different  and  even  contrary  the  one  to  the 
other.  For  on  the  one  hand  the  greater  branch  or  division, 
though  destitute  of  Bishops,  preserved  among  themselves  both 
the  idea  and  function  and  the  reaUty  of  Priesthood,  together 
with  the  whole  outward  form  of  doctrine  and  ritual.  But 
the  other  great  division,  or  family  of  divisions,  had  among 
them  neither  Priests  nor  Deacons,  but  only  a  new  and  ir- 
regular ministry  of  certain  Preachers  to  whom  no  idea  of  any 
sacerdotal  character  attached.  And  from  this  difference  be- 
tween the  two  great  branches  or  families  of  the  Anti-reforming 
Schism  the  followers  of  the  one  were  called  "  Popdfchins,"  that 
is.  Sectaries  having  Priests,  and  those  of  the  other  "  Bez-popqf- 
chins"  that  is,  "Non-Presbyterians,''  or  Sectaries  having  no 
Priesthood. 

The  parallel  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Calvinists  of  the 
West  and  the  "Popofchins  "  and  "  Bez-popofchins  "  of  the  East 
of  Europe  holds  good  in  this  also,  that  though  the  principle  or 
pretext  of  the  Anti-reforming  Schism  in  Russia  would  have  led 
one  to  anticipate  for  all  its  sects,  when  once  formed,  a  narrow 
and  bigoted  conservatism  (such  as  has  in  fact  characterized  the 
"  Popofchins,")  that  branch  of  it  which  dispensed  with  Priest- 
hood has  shown  a  proneness  to  further  changes  and  subdivisions 
more  and  more  destructive  of  all  outward  religion,  very  analo- 
gous to  the  downward  developments  of  the  Calvinistic  Reforma- 
tion in  the  West  of  Europe. 

But  the  contrasts  and  the  mutual  denials  or  refutations  of  one 
another's  errors  which  are  exhibited  by  the  double-branched 
Reformation  of  the  West  and  the  double-branched  Anti-reform- 


300         OF  THE  PARALLEL  AND  CONTRAST  EXISTING  BETWEEN 

ing  Schism  in  Russia  are  no  less  curious  and  instructive  than 
are  their  parallels  and  resemblances. 

In  the  West  (to  speak  generally  and  upon  the  whole,)  the 
leaders  of  the  Lutherans,  who  did  not  cast  off  altogether  the 
idea  of  Priesthood,  finding  that  they  had  the  Bishops  against 
them,  and  being  only  Priests  themselves,  took  the  liberty  to 
make  fresh  Priests  or  Pastors ;  and  for  their  justification  they 
maintained  (in  the  Articles  of  Smalcald)  that  Priests  and  Bishops 
are  in  fact  one  and  the  same  Order,  and  that  in  case  of  necessity 
a  Priest  may  be  ordained  by  Priests  or  Pastors  only. 

But,  that  a  testimony  might  not  be  wanting  against  this  error, 
the  corresponding  branch  of  the  Anti-Reformation,  that  is  to 
say,  the  "  Old  Believers,"  or  "  Old  Ceremonialists  "  {Popofchins, 
Staroviertsi,  or  Starobrdfsi)  of  Russia,  being  placed  in  precisely 
similar  circumstances,  thinking  Sacraments  and  Priests  necessary, 
but  having  the  Bishops  against  them,  and  being  hard  pressed 
what  to  do,  though  they  had  Priests  among  their  first  leaders, 
and  might  probably  have  heard  the  fame  of  what  the  Lutherans 
had  done  in  Germany  and  Denmark,  never  admitted  the  idea  of 
an  Ordination  of  fresh  Clergy  by  Priests  only.  For  not  all  the 
Priests  in  the  world,  they  said,  without  a  Bishop,  could  make  a 
Priest,  however  pressing  the  necessity ;  not  though  the  ancient 
Church  (as  they  said  was  the  case,)  had  apostatized  and  become 
Babylon,  and  its  Patriarch  Antichrist.  Yet  Priests  must  be  had: 
for  without  Priests  there  could  be  no  Sacraments.  What  then 
was  to  be  done  ?  The  course  on  which  they  decided,  and  which 
they  continue  to  pursue  even  to  the  present  day,  was  this  :  Who- 
soever of  the  Priests  of  the  old  Church  was  known  or  suspected 
by  them  to  be  discontented,  or  to  be  in  danger  of  punishment 
for  any  irregularit}',  or  to  have  been  actually  suspended  or  de- 
prived, they  would  offer  him  such  and  such  a  stipend  if  he  would 
abandon  that  Church  which  they  called  Babylon,  and  join  them, 
and  be  their  Priest.  And  when  he  consented,  the  Priests  that 
were  among,  them  first  put  him  to  penance  and  gave  him  Abso- 
lution for  having  belonged  to  the  apostate  Church,  and  then 
used  his  ministrations  because  he  had  been  Ordained  by  a  Bishop, 
and  was  a  true  Priest.  So  the  true  and  spotless  Church  which 
had  preserved  her  purity  by  refusing  all  reformations,  by  retain- 
ing and  venerating  the  uncorrected  MS.  Service-books  and  the 


THE  SECTARIES  OF  WESTERN  AND  EASTERN  EUROPE.  301 

oldest  and  blackest  Tcous^  and  by  continuing  to  say  "  sua  mise- 
ricordid  "  for  "  tud  miser icor did,''  witnesses  not  only  against  the 
Bez-popofchins  of  Russia  and  the  Calvinists  of  the  West  to  the 
necessity  of  Priesthood^but  also  most  singularly  and  emphatically 
against  the  Presbyterian  Lutherans  to  the  necessity  of  Episcopal 
Ordination ;  although  by  her  tenaciousness  of  this  truth  she  is 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  depending  for  her  own  existence  on 
the  Bishops  of  the  apostacy,  and  accepting  the  very  refuse  of 
their  Priests  for  the  service  of  her  altars. 

The  Calvinistic  lleformation  in  the  West  (to  speak  again  gene- 
rally and  upon  the  whole,)  having  had  a  mere  layman,  Calvin,  for 
its  Apostle  and  Doctor,  could  not  make  much  advantage,  even  if  it 
had  been  more  inclined  that  way,  of  the  shift  of  the  Lutherans 
by  pretending  that  Bishops  and  Priests  are  essentially  but  one  Or- 
der. Nevertheless,  retaining  some  idea  of  the  importance  of 
certain  rites,  and  especially  of  two  which  they  still  called  Sacra- 
ments, the  Calvinists  found  it  necessary  to  settle  for  themselves 
how  the  grace  of  Sacraments  w^as  to  be  obtained.  And  the 
theory  to  which  they  had  recourse  was  this :  Dispensing  with 
sacerdotal  benedictions  and  consecrations,  and  with  the  whole 
ministry  of  the  Apostolic  clergy,  they  taught  that  under  that 
new  state  of  things  which  their  "  Gospel "  had  introduced  or 
restored  the  true  and  efficacious,  and  the  only  necessary,  conse- 
crating or  constitutive  principle  in  Sacraments  was  the  faith  of 
the  individual  receiver. 

But,  that  a  testimony  against  this  error  might  not  be  wanting, 
the  corresponding  branch  of  the  Anti-Beformation  of  Russia, 
the  Bez-popofchins,  being  placed  in  precisely  similar  circum- 
stances, having  neither  Bishops  nor  Priests  of  their  own,  and 
considering  it  to  be  absurd  and  unbecoming  for  the  pure  Church 
of  the  Gospel  to  depend  for  a  succession  of  ordinary  clergy 
upon  the  apostacy  which  they  named  Babylon,  and  yet  thinking 
that  Sacraments  were  necessary,  were  obliged  to  settle  for  them- 
selves how  Sacraments  were  to  be  had.  But  though  they  had 
gone  thus  far  with  the  Calvinists  of  the  West,  that  the  whole 
ancient  hierarchy,  having  become  apostate,  might  be  dispensed 
with,  and  that  the  letter  or  form  of  antiquity  must  yield  in  case 
of  necessity  to  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  they  stopped  short  here ; 
and,  thinking   Sacraments   to  be  necessary,  never  admitted  the 


30.2   OF  Tin:  PARALLEL  AND  CONTRAST  EXISTING  BETWEEN 

idea  that  they  could  make  Sacraments  to  themselves  by  an  in- 
ward act  of  their  own  minds.  Not  all  the  faith  in  the  world, 
they  maintained,  (unconsciously  contradicting  their  brethren  in 
the  West,)  could  make  a  Sacrament.  For  a  Sacrament  there 
needs  certain  fixed  elements,  and  certain  words  of  consecration  : 
for  consecration  there  needs  a  Priest :  and  for  Priesthood  there 
needs  Ordination  by  a  Bishop.  What  then  was  to  be  done  ? 
The  expedient  to  which  they  had  recourse  was  this  :  They  per- 
suaded themselves  that  there  had  been  preserved  among  them 
Holy  Mysteries  (that  is,  one  or  more  Hosts,  smeared  from  the 
Chahce  and  dried,  as  is  usual  for  the  Communion  of  the  Sick,) 
which  had  been  validly  consecrated  before  the  old  Church  with 
her  hierarchy  had  apostatized  and  become  Babylon.  The  Bles- 
sed Sacrament  thus  preserved  they  took  and  mixed  perpetually 
with  fresh  dough  and  fresh  wine,  so  as  to  multiply  to  any  ex- 
tent they  pleased  Oblations  which  were  already  consecrated  even 
before  they  were  baked  or  kneaded.  And  thus  they  satisfy  them- 
selves that  they  have  true  Sacraments  validly  consecrated  by 
Priests  Episcopally  Ordained,  without  depending  for  Priests 
(like  the  Popofchins)  on  the  dead  and  apostate  Church  and  hie- 
rarchy which  they  call  Babylon  ;  while  they  testify  most  singu- 
larly and  emphatically  against  the  error  of  their  brethren  in 
the  West  who  have  resolved  not  only  the  visible  Church  and  the 
Priesthood,  but  the  consecration  also  and  the  essence  itself  of 
Sacraments  into  faith. 

In  the  West  the  separation  of  the  Protestants  and  the  Re- 
formed, though  prompted  for  evil  by  the  enemy,  has  indirectly 
been  an  advantage  to  the  Church,  and  an  occasion  of  real  refor- 
mation. Both  in  discipline  and  in  morals,  in  learning,  and  in  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  activity,  the  Latin  or  Roman-Catholic 
Church  has  profited  from  the  dangers,  the  losses,  and  the  fierce 
and  incessant  attacks  to  which  she  has  been  exposed :  and  she 
presents  now  a  very  difi*erent  aspect  from  that  which  she  may 
have  seemed  to  wear  before  the  Council  of  Trent,  And  in  like 
manner  the  separation  of  the  Popofchins  and  the  Bez-popofchins 
in  Russia  in  the  seventeenth  century,  though  prompted  by  the 
enemy  for  evil,  has  been  in  truth  only  the  accompaniment  and 
the  attestation  of  the  accomplishment  of  a  far  greater  good. 
For  from  the  nature  and  magnitude  of  this  schism  we  see  clearly 


THE  SECTARIES  OF  WESTERN  AND  EASTERN  EUROPE.        303 

the  nature  and  magnitude  of  that  danger  which  had  previously 
been  growing  upon  the  Russian  Church  (and  through  her  upon 
the  whole  Eastern  Church)  from  within ;  and  what  need  there 
was  for  that  reformation  which  is  now  for  ever  connected  with 
the  name  of  the  Patriarch  Nicon.     If  the  Russian  Church  had 
not  then  had  the  strength  to  cast  out   that  spirit  and  leaven 
which  had  long  been  working  within  her,  she  would  have  become 
what  the  separation  of  the  Popofchins  was  and  is,  a  mere  outward 
Judaical  superstition,  a  rite  rather  than  a  living  and  spiritual  reli- 
gion. And  the  power  of  life  which  was  needed  to  make  that  refor- 
mation which  was  made,  and  to  cast  out  a  spirit  which  was  of 
such  long  standing  and  so  extensively  prevalent,  may  be  easily  es- 
timated by  Anglicans,  who  have  learned  by  recent  experiences  how 
difficult  or  rather  impossible  it  is  among  themselves,  civilized, 
educated,  and  enlightened  though   they  may  be,  for  reason  or 
legitimate    authority   to    effect    even    the    smallest   reformation 
against  the  narrow  bigotry  of  popular  custom.     It  is  true  that 
Nicon  was  Antichrist  in  the  eyes  of  the  separatists,  and  true 
that  they  had  their  revenge  upon  him  in  this  world,  when  by  a 
union   of  their  favourers  with  the  wicked  Boyars,  and  by  the 
fault  of  the  Sovereign,  and  the  subserviency  of  the  Eastern  Pa- 
triarchs, he  was  deposed  and  imprisoned.     But  in  all  this  the 
serpent  was  in  truth  only  biting  the  file  to  his  own  confusion.  For 
the  fall  of  Nicon  carried  with  it  no  condemnation  nor  reversal  of 
his  great  work.     On  the  contrary  it  only  gave  additional  weight, 
and  emphasis,  and  confirmation  to  his  reforms.  And  it  exhibited 
to  the  world  and  to  posterity  a  contrast  which  deserves  to  be 
studied   by  the  admirers  of  Luther  and  Calvin  :    a   true   Re- 
former :  not  a  man  of  inferior  station  exciting  the  people  with 
bitter  invective  against  dignities,  but  a  Bishop,  the  Primate  of  a 
great  empire,  taking  the  lead,  according  to  his  duty,  in  intro- 
ducing just  and  necessary  reforms;  and  then,  when  unjustly 
condemned  and  degraded  even  from  his  Orders  by  a  confederacy 
of  all  parties,  and  of  all  the  forms  of  outward  authority,  the 
Boyars,  the  Hierarchy,  the  Tsar,  the  Eastern  Patriarchs,  and  a 
Synod  representing  the  whole  Eastern  Communion,  not  inveigh- 
ing against  his  enemies,  not  countenancing  separation  from  that 
Church  which  seemed  to  be  a  party  to  the  injustice,  but  unbend- 
ingly maintaining  the  truth,  praying  for  them  that  wronged 


304        PARALLEL  BETWEEN  WESTERN  AND  RUSSIAN  SECTS. 

him,  and  offering  them  Absolution  when  they  should  repent, 
taking  upon  himself  to  do  penance  for  the  public  sins,  and  ad- 
ding to  the  rigours  of  his  imprisonment  the  voluntary  austeri- 
ties of  an  ascetic  Saint.  If  a  Protestant  would  wish  to  know 
how  any  really  religious  man,  a  Priest  like  Luther,  or  a  layman 
like  Calvin,  advocating  a  reformation  within  bounds,  and  un- 
justly condemned  and  persecuted  by  the  authorities  of  the 
outward  Church  and  State,  ought  to  have  acted,  he  may  find 
something  to  correct  his  ideas  in  the  life  of  this  Russian 
Patriarch. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

AN    ENUMERATION     OF     CERTAIN     THINGS     WHICH    SEEM    TO    BE 
DESIRABLE    FOR    THE    EASTERN    ORTHODOX    CHURCH. 

I.  That  the  discrepancy  now  existing  between  the  Greek  and 
Russian  Churches  as  to  Baptisms  administered  by  heretics  or  by 
lay  people,  or  otherwise  than  by  trine  immersion,  should  be 
done  away,  either  i.  By  the  decree  of  some  joint  Synod : 
or  II.  By  separate  decrees,  to  be  made  after  mutual  correspon- 
dence on  each  of  the  two  sides  :  or  iii.  By  the  Greek  Patriarchs 
reprinting  and  publishing  the  Synodal  and  Patriarchal  decisions 
of  their  Church  on  this  subject,  and  letting  the  older  and  more 
authoritative  of  them  tacitly  supplant  the  later  and  less  authori- 
tative as  a  rule  for  practice  :  or  lastly  iv.  By  the  Greeks  adopt- 
ing a  Conditional  Form  for  rebaptizing  such  proselytes  as  the 
Russians  do  not  rebaptize,  or  allowing  a  conditional  sense  to  be 
attached  to  the  existing  Form,  as  is  suggested  above  at  p.  1 76. 

II.  That  the  discrepancy  now  existing  between  the  Greek  and 
Russian  Churches  as  to  the  number  of  Degrees  of  Consanguinity 
and  Affinity  within  which  intermarriage  is  forbidden,  should  be 
done  away. 

III.  That  the  discrepancy  now  existing  between  the  Greek 
and  Russian  Churches  on  the  subject  of  Mixed  Marriages  should 
be  done  away. 

IV.  That  the  discrepancy  now  existing  between  the  Calendars 
of  the  Easterns  and  the  Westerns  should  be  done  away  by  the 
Easterns  adopting  the  corrected  Calendar  or  New  Style,  which 
might  be  done  almost  imperceptibly,  if  they  made  every  year  to 
be  a  Leap  Year  until  the  Calendars  coincided. 

V.  That  the  discrepancy  now  existing  between  the  Greek  and 
the  Latin  computations  of  Easter  should  be  done  away  by  the 

X 


30G  CERTAIN    THINGS    WHICH    SEEM    DESIRABLE 

Greeks  aclo})ting  for  the  future  the  more  accurate  computations 
and  Tables  of  the  Lathis. 

VI.  That  the  use  of  pubhc  Excommunication  and  pubUc 
Penance  shoukl  be  restored  in  the  case  of  sins  that  have  been 
scandalous  and  pubhc. 

VII.  That  such  Christians  as  are  judged  fit  by  their  Confes- 
sors should  be  encouraged  and  exhorted  to  more  frequent  Com- 
munion :  and  that,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  more  frequent 
Communion  of  such  persons,  the  customary  formal  preparation, 
by  a  week's  fasting  and  daily  attendance  at  the  Services  of  the 
Church,  should  be  modified  at  the  discretion  of  the  Confessor ; 
as  is  indeed  not  unfrequently  done. 

VIII.  That  a  Rule  or  Tv-ttikov  like  that  of  the  Patriarchal 
Church  at  Constantinople  should  be  made  for  parish  churches 
in  Russia,  directing  how  the  full  monastic  Services  of  the  Church- 
books,  especially  the  Readings  and  Singings,  may  be  abbreviated 
in  such  churches.  Also,  that  the  Priest  should  be  relieved  from 
the  obligation  of  reading  over  all  that  is  omitted  from  the  abbrevi- 
ated Service,  not  only  when  the  Service  is  abbreviated  at  will  in 
a  private  house,  but  also  when  the  Service  abbreviated  according 
to  the  shorter  Typicon  is  used  in  a  church. 

IX.  That  it  should  be  required  of  all  who  read  anything  in 
the  church  to  read  distinctly  and  reverently ;  and  that  the 
Readers  and  Clerks  should  be  trained  to  do  this :  and,  if  good 
Readers  are  not  to  be  found,  that  some  of  the  Priests  or  Deacons 
themselves,  or  some  religious  layman  of  education,  should  read; 
or  even  that  the  reading  should  be  omitted  altogether,  rather 
than  that  anything  should  be  gabbled  over  profanely. 

X.  That  directions  should  be  given  with  respect  to  Fasting 
to  guide  those  whose  health  or  duties,  or  other  circumstances,  or 
residence  among  aliens  in  religion,  may  render  some  relaxation 
necessary  or  reasonable  :  As,  for  instance,  if  it  were  allowed  that 
such  as  may  be  living  with  Latins  should  follow  the  Roman- 
Catholic  rule  for  the  place  or  country,  instead  of  neglecting  the 
Fast  altogether  because  it  may  be  difficult  to  observe  it  after  the 
Greek  manner :  And  if  for  the  three  lesser  Fasts,  before  the  Na- 
tivity of  our  Lord,  before  the  Festival  of  the  Apostles,  and  be- 
fore that  of  the  Assumption  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  the  fasting  of 
one  week   only  before  each  should  be  made  obligatory  (as  was 


FOR    THE    EASTERN    ORTHODOX    CHURCH.  307 

the  case  in  former  ages,)  tlie  observance  of  the  whole  period  now 
customary  being  left  to  everyone's  own  will  and  devotion. 

XI.  That  education  both  of  the  Clergy  and  laity,  and  of  girls 
as  well  as  boys,  should  be  more  generally  extended ;  and  that 
the  knowledge  of  the  Church  Books,  and  especially  of  the  Cate- 
chism, should  be  made  a  primary  part  of  it. 

XII.  That  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  Service-books  of  the 
Church  should  be  printed  in  portable  editions  in  the  vulgar  dia- 
lect of  each  country,  both  alone,  and  in  parallel  columns  with 
the  original  text :  or,  where  the  difference  between  the  original 
and  the  modern  language  is  small,  with  such  glosses  and  notes 
as  may  be  necessary  at  the  foot  of  each  page. 

XITI.  That  the  foundation  of  Monasteries,  both  of  men  and 
women,  should  be  encouraged,  and  full  permission  given  to 
monks  to  possess  and  cultivate  lands,  subject  to  no  other  inter- 
ference on  the  part  of  the  Government  than  such  as  all  other 
proprietors  are  liable  to. 

XIV.  That  some  Monasteries  should  be  more  especially  con- 
stituted and  directed  to  particular  ends,  over  and  above  the 
general  end  of  the  monastic  life  :  as  to  the  purposes  of  particu- 
lar Missions,  of  Education,  of  particular  good  works  of  mercy, 
as  also  to  agriculture,  and  the  settlement  of  uninhabited  districts. 

XV.  That,  on  a  just  occasion  occurring,  the  Empire  of  the 
Infidels  should  be  overthrown,  and  the  regions  of  the  East  re- 
gained to  Christianity. 

XVI.  That  the  Patriarchate,  or  personal  primacy,  m  the 
Russian  Church  should  be  restored,  according  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  Apostolical  and  (Ecumenical  Canons;  and  that 
just  liberty  should  be  allowed  the  Patriarch  or  Primate  and  the 
other  Bishops  to  hold  Synods,  and  to  make  Canons  in  spiritual 
matters  ;  to  hold  and  manage  real  property  with  the  same  free- 
dom as  other  proprietors  ;  and  to  appoint,  pay,  and  remove,  their 
own  officers ;  as  was  the  case  before  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  in  Russia.  Or,  if  the  present  synodal  govern- 
ment be  retained,  that  at  least  the  constitution  of  the  M.  H.  Synod 
should  be  corrected  in  some  such  way  as  that  in  which  the  Patri- 
arch and  Synod  of  Constantinople  in  1850  attempted  to  correct 
and  reconstitute,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Civil  Government 
of  Greece,  the   Holy    Synod  of  the  Church  in  that  Kmgdom. 


X 


308  CERTAIN    THINGS    MHICH    SEEM    DESIKABLE 

XVII.  That  the  same  reparation  which  was  made  to  St.  John 
Chrysostom  and  to  St.  Philip  MetropoUtan  of  Moscow  after 
their  deaths  by  the  successors  of  those  Sovereigns  who  had  sinned 
against  God  and  the  Church  by  persecuting  them  should  be 
made  also  to  the  memory  of  the  Russian  Patriarch  Nicon ;  and 
that  his  name  should  be  added  in  the  Liturgy  to  those  of  the 
holy  jNIetropolitans  Peter,  Alexis,  Jonah,  and  Philip. 

XVIII.  That  the  inconsistency  existing  at  present  in  the 
Books  and  Canon  Law  of  the  Eastern  Church,  and  in  the 
thoughts  and  language  of  her  members,  respecting  the  definition 
of  the  visible  Catholic  Church  should  be  done  away:  and  that 
it  should  be  made  clear  that  the  Eastern  Church  pretends  no 
more  for  herself  than  to  be  k  part  of  the  whole  (as  her  very  name 
implies,)  and  admits  the  Latin  Church  to  be  also  a  part ;  and 
desires  the  correction  in  some  secondary  matters,  not  the  radi- 
cal conversion  or  destruction,  of  this  latter. 

XIX.  That  the  mission  and  duty  of  the  true  and  orthodox 
Church  to  preach  and  communicate  Christianity  to  all  nations, 
and  perfect  Christianity  to  all  Churches,  nations,  or  individuals 
which  already  profess  Christianity  but  with  more  or  less  admix- 
ture of  error,  should  be  more  generally  understood  and  taught 
among  the  Easterns  ;  and  that  a  spirit  should  arise  among  them 
prompting  them  to  a  better  fulfilment  of  this  duty. 

XX.  That  with  regard  to  such  as  are  already  Christians  the 
following  principle  should  be  laid  down  and  acted  upon  ;  That 
the  Orthodox  Church  should  not  call  upon  them  to  condemn  or 
renounce  anythmg  that  is  in  itself  true,  or  good,  or  indifferent, 
of  what  they  have,  or  suppose  themselves  to  have,  already ;  nor 
prohibit  the  retention  of  anything  in  itself  good  or  harmless,  to 
which  even  individual  proselytes  have  been  accustomed ;  nor 
impose  unnecessarily  any  new  burden  to  which  they  have  been 
unaccustomed  ;  but  should  make  them  renounce  only  what  is  false 
or  evil,  filling  up  their  Christianity  hitherto  imperfect  so  as  to 
make  it  conformable  not  to  any  Greek,  or  Russian,  or  Eastern 
type,  but  to  the  (Ecumenical  Creed,  and  discipline,  and  tradition. 

XXI.  That  there  should  be  maintained  at  Rome,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Russian  Legation,  one  or  two  learned  Ecclesiastics 
charged  with  the  duty  of  studying  carefully  those  questions 
which   seem   to   be  cither  doctrinally  or  politically  obstacles  to 


FOR    THE    EASTERN    ORTHODOX    CHURCH.  309 

uuion ;  of  labouring  to  discover  some  way  to  remove  or  lessen 
such  obstacles,  or  some  of  them,  or  some  one  of  them ;  of  making 
from  time  to  time  to  the  Roman  See  and  its  theologians  such 
representations  or  explanations  as  they  may  be  able  to  make,  or 
may  be  instructed  to  make,  towards  the  facilitation  of  union ; 
and  of  seeking  or  receiving  from  the  Roman  side  similar  com- 
munications tending  to  the  same  end. 

XXII.  That  the  origin  and  history  of  the  expressions  "  Filio- 
que "  and  "  e  Filio  procedere,"  and  the  gradual  growth  or  de- 
velopment of  the  doctrine  of  the  "  Double  Procession  "  within 
the  Latin  Church,  should  be  more  fully  investigated  :  and  that 
all  those  texts  of  Latin  Fathers  and  writers  in  which  either  the 
language  or  the  doctrine  occurs  should  be  collected,  and  critically 
examined,  so  that  the  work  of  Zoernikaflf  (who  has  exhausted 
the  subject  so  far  as  relates  to  the  Greek  Fathers,  but  has  left 
something  still  to  be  done  in  respect  of  the  Latin  Fathers,)  may 
be  completed. 

XXIII.  That  the  Eastern  Church  should  again,  in  accordance 
with  the  judgment  of  Theophylact  Archbishop  of  Bulgaria,  offer 
Communion  to  individual  Latins,  whether  of  the  clergy  or  laity, 
on  condition  only  of  their  being  willing  to  recite  the  Creed 
without  the  interpolation,  and  to  look  forward  to  the  final  settle- 
ment of  that  and  other  controversies  with  an  implicit  submission 
of  mind  to  a  future  (Ecumenical  Synod. 

XXIV.  That  Missions  or  permanent  religious  stations  for  ob- 
taining accurate  information,  as  well  as  for  communication  and 
action,  should  be  established  in  connection  with  Russian  civil 
authority  or  protection  among  or  near  all  those  communities 
which  though  heretical  have  preserved  the  organisation  of 
Churches  :  such  as  are  i.  the  Nestorians  in  the  mountains  of 
Kurdistan,  betvveen  Mosul  and  Oormiah  ;  ii.  the  Armenians, 
whose  chief  sanctuary  of  Etchmiadzin  is  now  within  the  Russian 
territory;  iii.  the  Syrian  Jacobites  near  Mardin;  iv.  the  Copts 
of  Egypt ;  and  v.  the  Abyssinians.  The  duty  of  the  mission- 
aries in  respect  of  each  of  these  Churches  should  he  first,  to  learn 
thoroughly  the  Ecclesiastical  dialect,  and  study  accurately  the 
doctrine  and  ritual  of  each,  so  as  to  be  able,  secondly,  to  suggest 
for  approval  to  the  authorities  of  the  Orthodox  Church  that  pre- 
cise correction  of  the  ritual  of  each  Church,  with  the  least  possi- 


3J0  CERTAIN    THINGS    WHICH    SEEM    DESIRABLE 

ble  change,  wliich  may  be  necessary  in  order  to  bring  it  into 
conformity  with  the  (Ecumenical  Creed,  discipline,  and  tradition  : 
And,  such  correction  of  the  Ritual  having  been  determined, 
then  thirdhj  to  admit  to  the  Communion  of  the  Orthodox  Church 
any  Christians,  whether  coming  as  individuals  or  in  bodies,  who 
will  accept  such  a  correction  of  their  ritual,  and  withdraw  for 
the  future  from  Communion  in  prayers  and  Sacraments  with 
others  who  refuse  to  accept  it. 

XXV.  That  the  same  should  be  done  in  the  West  in  relation 
to  the  Anglican  Church ;  and  that,  if  possible,  separately  in 
England,  Scotland,  and  America,  as  the  circumstances  of  the 
Anglican  Communion  are  somewhat  different  in  each  of  these 
Countries :  Only,  in  these  countries,  the  Orthodox  Missions 
should  be  free  from  all  suspicion  of  dependence  upon  any  poli- 
tical Legation,  Consulate,  or  agency  of  Russia.  And  the  mis- 
sionaries themselves  should  become  citizens  of  the  country  in 
which  they  are  to  labour. 

XXVI.  That  something  of  the  same  hind  should  be  done  in 
relation  to  the  Lutherans  of  Finland,  either  by  a  Mission  in  con- 
nection with  the  Russian  Government,  or  directly  by  the  Minis- 
ter of  State  for  the  Tolerated  Religions.  For  the  Lutherans  of 
Finland,  like  those  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  having  retained  the 
outward  form  of  the  Ecclesiastical  organisation,  (though  destitute 
of  a  real  hierarchy,)  and  something  like  a  ritual,  and  ascribing 
(according  to  the  principles  of  Lutheranisra)  a  "  super-episcopal" 
power  to  the  civil  ruler  in  all  that  relates  to  the  outward  form 
of  religion,  the  Emperor  of  Russia  might,  without  any  violation 
of  their  consciences,  use  prudently  this  power ;  and  might  desire 
of  them  from  time  to  time  to  consider  whether  there  were  not 
any  points  of  ritual,  however  small,  in  which  they  could  approxi- 
mate towards  the  Orthodox  Church.  And  thus,  not  at  once, 
but  gradually,  either  the  whole  body  might  become  capable  of 
union ;  or  at  least  the  nucleus  would  be  formed  for  an  Orthodox 
Finnish  Rite,  which  w^ould  have  great  facilities  for  the  conversion 
of  such  as  remained  still  attached  to  Lutheranism. 

XXVIL  That  for  all  proselytes  from  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic 
or  other  sects  some  short  and  simple  form  of  union  should  be 
adopted,  like  that  by  which  the  Russian  Church  now  reconciles 
native  Russian  schismatics,  the  proselyte  by  no  means  renoun- 


FOR    THE    EASTERN    ORTHODOX    CHURCH.  311 

cing  his  former  sect  in  the  concrete,  so  as  to  seem  to  himselt 
or  to  others  to  deny  or  disavow  any  good  thing  or  any  truth 
which  he  had  received  through  it,  but  merely  renouncing  all 
heresies,  and  particularly  those  of  his  former  sect,  and  its  Commu- 
nion, and  professing  to  believe  all  that  the  (Ecumenical  Councils 
and  the  Catholic  Church  have  delivered,  and  being  Baptized  or 
conditionally  rebaptized,  if  he  was  either  altogether  unbaptized 
before,  or  it  seemed  uncertain  whether  he  had  been  Baptized 
with  the  invocation  of  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Trinity  and 
with  water  which  actually  touched  him. 

XXVIII.  That  Missions  should  be  established  among  the 
heathen  of  China,  India,  and  Japan,  the  missionaries  in  these 
cases  also  becoming  subjects  of  the  Governments  within  the 
territories  of  which  they  are  to  labour ;  and  the  ritual  of  the 
Eastern  Church  being  given  to  the  converts  to  use  in  their  own 
tongue  unclogged  with  irreverent  gabblings  or  accumulations  of 
dead  and  barren  forms ;  that  is  to  say,  reduced  in  its  dimen- 
sions by  the  omission  of  all  that  is  now  either  practically  omitted 
or  irreverently  hurried  over  in  the  Greek  and  Russian  churches, 
and  of  all  mere  local  or  national  peculiarities,  as  of  singings  and 
legends  which  refer  to  local  Russian,  or  Greek,  or  Georgian 
Saints,  or  wonders,  which  are  not  of  oecumenical  importance. 

XXIX.  That  some  central  Missionary  Establishment  should 
be  created,  as  in  the  Crimea,  or  at  Tiflis,  or  on  Mount  Athos, 
which  should  be  under  the  direction  of  the  Russian  Primate  and 
his  Synod,  or  of  a  mixed  commission  named  by  him  and  by  the 
Greek  Patriarchs ;  the  first  Missions  sent  from  thence  being  mo- 
nastic, but  their  efforts  being  directed  to  establish  as  soon  as 
possible,  each  in  its  own  sphere  of  labour,  a  native  Rite,  with  its 
own  secular  Clergy  and  Schools  in  connection  with  Orthodoxy. 

Two  things  still  more  to  be  desired  than  all  the  above  shall 
be  treated  of  separately  in  the  next  Section. 


DISSERTATION  XXIII. 

OF  THE  DUTY  OF  MAKING  SPECIAL  CONCERTED  PRAYERS  FOR 
THE  REUNION  OF  THE  EASTERN  AND  WESTERN  CHURCHES  : 
AND    OF    A    FUTURE    (ECUMENICAL    SYNOD. 

It  is  written  in  the  Psalms  "  God  is  He  that  maketh  men  to  be 
of  one  mind  in  the  house ;"  and  again^  "  Behold,  how  good  and 
pleasant  a  thing  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity  !" 
This  divine  concord  of  men  in  the  House,  this  dwelUng  together 
of  brethren  in  unity,  wliich  is  so  good  and  lovely,  began  with 
the  House  itself,  that  is,  with  the  Church  itself,  from  the 
descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  from  that 
Baptism  in  which  all  other  Sacraments  were  contained.  Then 
the  tongues  which  had  once  been  divided  and  stiffened  separately 
into  confusion  and  discord,  were  blended  together  again  by 
elastic  and  multiform  fire,  which  was  cloven  without  being 
divided :  and  the  nations  which  had  once  been  scattered  abroad 
from  the  tower  of  Babel  were  called  together  again  to  the  foot 
of  the  Ladder  of  Jacob.  The  New  Jerusalem,  the  "city  of 
peace,"  began  to  rise  from  the  ruins  of  Egypt,  Canaan,  and 
Babylon :  and  for  nine  hundred  years,  or  thereabouts,  the  unity 
of  the  Church  was  plainly  visible  to  the  world. 

Now  however  it  is  otherwise.  We  hear  of  "  the  Churches,"  no 
longer  of  "  the  Church."  "  Orthodoxy  "  is  distinguished  from 
"Catholicism,"  and  Catholicism  from  Orthodoxy.  Common  sense, 
(so  it  is  said  at  least,)  learning,  science,  and  the  Bible,  from  both. 
"  Spiritual  religion  "  is  opposed  to  "  dogmatism,"  and  to  "formal 
and  sacramental  worship,"  and  they  to  it.  The  Tomb  of  Christ, 
and  the  Eastern  half  of  the  Christian  world,  have  for  many 
centuries  been  in  the  hands  of  infidels,  who  alone  prevent  the 
Greeks  and   Latins  and  Armenians   from   tearing  each  other  in 


OF  CONCERTED  PRAYERS  FOR  UNITY,  ETC.       313 

pieces  on  that  Calvary  where  Christ  spread  His  arms  from  the 
Cross  to  all  nations,  and  on  that  Mount  Sion  where  the  Holy 
Ghost  came  down  to  turn  discord  into  love. 

What  is  to  be  the  end  of  these  scandals  ?  or  what  is  their 
remedy  ?  The  Latin  looks  perhaps  to  the  zeal  and  training  of 
his  missionaries,  and  to  the  political  influence  of  France  in  the 
Levant :  the  Greek,  unless  blinded  by  narrow  jealousies,  looks  to 
the  growing  power  of  Russia.  But  perhaps  the  best  way  for 
all  to  learn  how  unity  is  to  be  restored  may  be  by  considering 
how  it  was  first  obtained. 

What  then  on  the  side  of  men  were  the  conditions  under 
which  unity  was  first  given  ?  They  were  these :  Men  already 
prepared,  the  Apostles  and  other  disciples,  in  whom  the  whole 
future  Church  and  her  hierarchy  were  contained,  "together 
with  the  women  and  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus,"  were  abiding- 
together  with  one  accord  in  one  place,  in  the  Upper  Chamber  of 
the  last  Mystical  Supper,  on  Mount  Sion.  They  were  abiding- 
together  there,  with  one  accord,  and  in  prayer. 

Christians  then,  it  would  seem,  should  now  also  be  together 
with  one  accord  in  the  church,  their  Sion,  and  in  the  sanctuary, 
their  Upper  Chamber ;  and  should  pray  for  the  restoration  of 
their  primitive  unity. 

It  will  be  replied  by  Greeks,  and  indeed  by  Anglicans  also, 
that  this  is  what  their  respective  Churches  already  do.  And 
the  Greek  will  quote  from  the  Prayers  of  his  Church  such  ex- 
pressions as  these  :  "  For  the  peace  of  the  holy  Churches  of 
God,  and  for  the  union  of  all :'""  "And  grant  us  with  one  mouth 
and  one  heart  to  praise  and  magnify  Thy  glorious  Name,"  ^c. : 
and  from  the  Hymns  such  as  these  to  the  Archangel :  "  Smite 
down  the  haughty  rage  of  the  Hagarenes  which  unintermittingly 
attacks  thy  flock :  Lull  to  calm  the  schisms  of  the  Church,"  ^c. 
"  Gabriel  now  again  announces  glad  tidings,  the  union  of  the 
Churches,  and  the  overthrow  of  all  opposing  heresy  :^'  "  The  heresies 
in  the  Church  and  all  scandals  do  ye  extinguish  by  your  interces- 
sions :"  ''Kill  the  sources  of  the  storms  of  passions,  and  so  with 
them  put  an  end  to  all  offences  relating  to  the  faith." 

That  such  passages  are  contained  in  the  ritual  as  these,  which 
every  one  may  well  a})ply  in  his  heart  to  the  present  division  of 
the   Churches,  even   though   the   passages  have  not  historically 


314  OF    CONCERTED    PRAYERS    FOR    UNITY,    AND    OF 

any  such  application,  is,  no  doubt,  a  great  blessing.  But  still, 
if  we  consider,  we  shall  see  that  the  existence  of  such  passages  in 
the  ritual,  and  their  private  application  by  some  Christians  in  a 
particular  sense,  is  not  enough  of  itself  to  make  the  wall  of  sepa- 
ration to  fall  down. 

Our  Lord  says  "  Whatsoever  thing  two  or  three  of  you  shall 
agree  together  to  ask  in  my  name,  it  shall  he  done  for  you  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven."  So  then,  firstly,  there  must  be  a 
definite  thing  asked  :  Secondly,  it  must  be  asked  not  separately 
by  individuals  in  their  hearts,  whether  in  public  or  in  private 
prayer,  but  by  two  or  three  at  the  least  who  have  first  agreed 
together  to  seek  the  same  thing,  and  to  unite  their  prayers  in 
seeking  it :  Thirdly,  it  must  be  asked  in  the  Name  of  Christ. 

Now  with  regard  to  the  fiist  of  these  requisites,  that  the 
petition  must  be  distinct  and  definite,  this  is  evident  of  itself; 
for  unless  it  be  so,  it  cannot  be  made  the  subject  of  previous 
agreement.  Nor  will  a  general  petition  for  unity,  any  more 
than  for  grace,  or  for  repentance,  obtain  effectually  all  those 
particulars  which  may  seem  to  be  virtually  comprehended  under 
it.  It  may  do  so  indeed  so  far  as  the  heart  is  }3erfect  towards 
God,  and  is  not  improperly  inattentive  to  any  thing  which 
ought  to  fix  its  attention,  and  to  be  made  the  subject  of  par- 
ticular prayer.  But  so  far  as  this  is  not  the  case,  a  general 
prayer  is  at  the  best  barren,  or  more  probably  even  sinful,  being- 
used  as  a  means  of  self-deception,  not  in  order  to  include 
effectually  what  seems  to  be  contained  under  it,  but  in  order  to 
avoid  thinking  distinctly  and  particularly  about  particulars 
which  are  distinctly  disagreeable :  as  in  the  following  example, 

A  child  has  perhaps  been  taught  to  pray  generally  to  God  to 
"  bless  his  father  and  mother  and  brothers  and  sisters,  and  to 
bless  himself  also,  and  to  make  him  a  good  child  :"  which  in- 
cludes in  one  general  form  all  that  he  can  desire  either  for  them 
or  for  himself.  But  he  has  been  stubborn  or  envious,  and  is 
told  by  his  parents  to  be  sorry  for  his  sin,  and  to  pray  to  God 
to  forgive  him,  and  to  make  him  humble  and  obedient  and 
affectionate  for  the  future.  This,  so  long  as  he  is  under  the  in- 
fluence of  evil,  he  will  not  do.  But  perhaps  he  will  not  like 
either  to  confess  to  himself  that  he  is  so  bad  a  child  as  to  be  un- 
fit and  unable  even  to  pray.     So  he  will  kneel   down,   and  will 


A    FUTURE    (ECUMENICAL    SYNOD.  315 

say  the  same  general  prayers  which  he  has  the  habit,  more  or 
less  mechanical,  of  repeating ;  and  will  even  think  perhaps  (if  he 
think  at  all,)  that  they  contain  all  that  his  parents  have  bidden 
him  to  pray  for ;  and  will  wish  generally  that  they  may  have 
their  effect,  and  that  at  some  future  time  he  may  be  a  good  boy. 
Every  one  can  see  what  is  the  nature  of  such  a  child's  general 
prayer ;  and  how  unacceptable  it  must  be  in  the  sight  of  God. 

Just  the  same  is  the  use  now  often  made  controversially  in  the 
divided  Greek  and  Anglican  Churches  of  those  general  prayers 
for  unity  which  either  are  older  than  their  separation  from  the 
Roman  Church,  or,  even  if  later,  have  properly  and  historically 
no  reference  to  it ;  and  which  are  put  forward  only  to  avoid 
thinking  closely,  or  seeking  to  feel  and  act  rightly,  with  regard 
to  the  separation  and  its  causes. 

If  people  were  in  earnest,  every  Christian  should  at  the  least 
individually  pray  every  day  some  such  prayer  as  this  :  "  O  God, 
heal  the  divisions  of  the  Latin  and  the  Greek  and  other  particular 
Churches:  and  make  me  to  think  humbly  and  reasonably  and 
piously  and  rightly  on  those  points  in  particular  which  now  seem 
to  divide  them ;  especially  on  the  unity,  visibility,  and  universality 
of  the  Church,  on  the  supremacy  claimed  by  the  Roman  See,  on 
the  procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ;"  ^r.  &^r.  (dwelling,  mentally 
at  least,  on  each  of  those  chief  points  which  he  knows  to  be 
causes  of  division,)  "  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen.'' 
The  habit  of  saying  such  a  prayer  would  at  any  rate  be  salutary 
for  the  individual  (whether  Greek  or  Anglican,)  and  would  tend 
to  lessen  the  danger  of  his  sharing  personally  in  the  guilt  of 
perpetuating  or  deepening  any  error  or  schism. 

But  for  the  restoration  of  unity  between  the  Churches  the 
prayer  of  individuals  is  not  enough.  Christians  must  " agree 
together "  to  ask  it,  and  must  ask  it  unitedly,  if  they  would 
obtain  it.  For  it  is  more  than  the  removal  of  mountains,  more 
than  the  casting  out  of  many  fierce  and  strong  devils.  There  is 
however  such  a  promise  to  the  concerted  and  united  prayer  even 
of  tivo  or  three,  that  if  there  be  only  two  or  three  souls  in  the 
Greek  or  Orthodox  Church  which  have  the  grace  given  them  to 
suffer  pain  from  the  existing  division,  and  to  sigh  after  unity, 
they  ought  to  seek  one  another  out,  and  agree  to  ask  it  in  con- 
cert, that  is,  at  the   same  time  and   in  the   same  words,  and  if 


316  Ol'    CONCERTED    PRAYERS    FOR    UNITY,    AND    OF 

possible  also  iu  the  same  place.  As  it  is  written  of  individuals 
under  somewhat  similar  circumstances  in  the  older  Dispensation, 
that  "  Then  they  that  feared  the  Lord  spake  often  one  to  another ; 
and  the  Lord  hearkened  and  heard  it ;  and  a  book  of  remembrance 
was  written  before  Him  for  them  that  feared  the  Lord  and  that 
thought  upon  His  Name." — Malachi  iii.  16. 

But  though  even  two  or  three  can  pray  in  concert,  and  are 
encouraged  to  do  so,  even  though  they  be  lay  people,  or  women, 
or  children,  yet  when  the  thing  prayed  for  concerns  the  Church 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  lesser  duty  implies  the  greater. 
If  a  promise  is  given  to  the  united  prayer  even  of  two  or  three 
lay  people,  much  more  is  the  same  promise  given  to  the  united 
prayers  of  two  or  three  or  many  Clergy ;  and  more  still  to  that 
concerted  and  united  prayer  which  is  made  with  the  spirit  and 
with  the  understanding  by  the  Bishop  the  Priests  and  the 
Deacons,  with  the  whole  local  Church,  celebrating  all  together 
the  Divine  Liturgy ;  and  most  of  all  to  the  united  prayer  of  the 
whole  Apostolic  Company,  that  is,  to  a  Synod  of  the  Bishops 
themselves.  They  were  the  Apostles  chiefly,  who  were  abiding 
together  in  prayer  in  the  Upper  Chamber  on  Mount  Sion,  when 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  unity  first  came  down  on  their  company, 
and  filled  the  House :  And  the  promise  of  Christ  respecting 
the  efficacy  of  prayer  was  addressed  directly  and  in  the  first 
instance  to  the  Apostles,  "  Whatsoever  thing  two  or  three  of 
you,"  that  is,  "  of  you  or  your  successors,'^  and  to  the  rest  who 
'^should  believe  through  their  word"  only  indirectly,  and 
through  them.  In  whatever  degree  then  it  is  a  duty  for  even 
two  or  three  of  the  Greek  laity  who  seek  the  peace  of  Jerusalem 
to  find  one  another  out,  and  to  pray  together  in  concert  for  it, 
in  the  same  and  in  a  still  higher  degree  is  it  the  duty  of  every 
Priest  and  Clerk  within  his  sphere,  of  every  Bishop  in  his 
diocese,  and  most  of  all  of  every  Synod  of  Bishops,  and  of  every 
Archbishop  or  Patriarch,  who  with  the  Bishops  nearest  to  him 
represents  the  whole  Synod  of  any  great  or  independent  portion 
of  the  Church. 

Some  labourers  for  peace  in  the  West  have  suggested  that  on 
every  Thursday  at  the  Mass  or  Liturgy  Christians  should  say  a 
special  prayer  for  unity,  and  join  in  ihc  Holy  Oblation  with  that 
intention  :  and    many  different  ways   might   be  concerted  :  nor 


A    FUTURE    (ECUMENICAL    SYNOD.  317 

need  they  be  everywhere  the  same.  For  members  of  the  Eastern 
Church  one  very  simple  and  easy  method  vvoidd  be  the  follow- 
ing :  That  a  few  individuals,  whoever  they  were  that  were  first 
moved  to  it,  should  agree  to  wear  round  their  necks  over  their 
outer  clothing  a  little  cross  (such  as  are  brought  from  Mount 
Athos  and  Jerusalem,)  in  token  of  mutual  concert,  and  for  the 
sake  of  mutual  recognition,  whenever  they  attend  the  public 
Service  of  the  Church,  and  especially  the  Liturgy  •  And  that  at 
the  words,  "  For  the  peace  of  the  holy  Churches  of  God,  and  Jor 
the  union  of  all : "  at  the  words  "  For  whomsoever  {or  whatsoever) 
each  one  present  hath  in  his  thoughts:''  and  again  at  the  Excla- 
mation by  the  Celebrant  at  the  end  of  the  most  solemn  interces- 
sions after  the  Consecration  of  the  Mysteries  :  "  And  grant  us 
all  with  one  heart  and  ivith  one  mouth,"  &c.,  they  should  each 
think  of  the  existing  divisions  of  the  universal  Church,  and  pray 
distinctly  in  their  minds  for  the  restoration  of  unity,  especially 
between  the  Orthodox  and  the  Latins,  the  Eastern  Patriarchs  and 
the  Pope  of  the  Elder  Rome. 

If  there  is  any  one  place  or  time  rather  than  another  at  which 
one  might  properly  wish  to  see  such  prayers  offered  by  a  Bishop 
Con-celebrating  with  his  clergy  and  people,  or  rather  by  a  Synod 
of  Bishops,  it  would  doubtless  be  in  the  Cenacle  on  Mount  Sion 
at  Jerusalem  (now  unhappily  in  the  hands  of  the  infidels,)  and 
on  the  Day  itself  of  Pentecost.  And  something  answering  to 
this  might  in  truth  be  possible  for  the  Bishop  and  his  clergy  in 
the  cathedral  church  of  each  diocese,  and  even  for  a  Synod  of 
Bishops  in  the  chief  Patriarchal  churches,  (at  least  in  those  of 
Constantinople  and  Jerusalem)  where  there  are  always  a  certain 
number  of  Bishops  residing  on  the  spot,  and  forming  a  lesser 
permanent  Synod  to  represent  the  larger  Synod  of  the  whole 
absent  Episcopate. 

With  this  idea,  in  the  summer  of  1850,  a  member  of  the  Or- 
thodox Eastern  Church  presented  to  the  Patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople Anthimus  the  following  petition  : 

"  Seeins:  that  the  Catholic  or  universal  Church  of  Christ 
has  now  for  many  ages  been  divided  into  two  great  hostde 
conununities  excommunicating  each  other,  and  that  from  this 
first  schism  have  followed  many  other  lesser  divisions  of  here- 
sies and  schisms,  with  cruel  hatreds  and  jealousies  ;  so  that  now 


318  OF    CONCERTED    PRAYERS    FOR    UNITY,    AND    OF 

at  tlie  very  Tomb  of  our  Saviour,  and  around  Mount  Sion,  the 
birthplace  of  Christianity,  is  heard  rather  the  confused  discord 
of  Babel  than  the  harmony  in  many  tongues  of  the  Paraclete, 
while  the  Easterns  accuse  the  Latins  of  heterodoxy,  without 
showing  any  very  ardent  zeal  or  charity  for  their  conversion, 
and  the  Latins  on  the  other  hand  send  their  missionaries  among 
the  Orthodox,  preaching  to  them  new  doctrines  unknown  to 
their  Fathers,  and  contending  with  them  for  the  possession  of 
the  Holy  Places, 

"  Certain  Christians,  who  do  not  wish  their  names  to  be  pub- 
lished, petition  Your  Holiness  that  you  would  be  pleased  to 
appoint  that  this  year,  and  every  succeeding  year  henceforth,  on 
one  day,  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  at  the  least,  there  be  celebrated  a 
Synodical  Liturgy  of  the  Bishops  with  special  prayers  for  the 
return  of  the  Latins  and  other  Westerns  to  perfect  Orthodoxy, 
and  generally  for  the. return  of  all  who  call  themselves  Christians 
towards  the  faith  and  zeal  and  charity  of  the  first  ages  :  that  He 
who  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost  by  the  descent  of  cloven  tongues  of 
fire  on  the  synodof  His  Apostles  recalled  the  dispersed  and  jarring 
nations  into  unity,  may  be  pleased  even  now  also,  in  these  last  days, 
to  hear  the  synodical  prayers  of  the  Hierarchy,  and  to  grant  some 
renewal  of  that  divine  outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  commensurate 
to  the  evils  which  oppress  the  Church  :  that  so  we,  with  all  who 
so  much  as  name  the  Name  of  Christ,  may  with  one  heart  and 
one  voice  glorify  His  great  and  holy  Name,  of  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  world  without  end.     Amen." 

Lastly,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  not  only  must 
the  thing  itself,  that  is,  the  reunion  of  the  Churches,  be  dis- 
tinctly desired  by  two  or  three  at  least,  and  made  the  object  of 
prayer  by  agreement  between  them,  but  this  concerted  prayer 
must  be  continued  persevcringly.  When  our  Lord  said  "  What- 
soever two  or  three  of  you  shall  agree  together  to  ask,"  the  word 
"ask"  did  not  mean  only  to  ask  once,  but  with  such  earnest- 
ness, and  such  other  accompaniments,  and  such  perseverance 
also,  as  are  suitable.  And  if  even  for  personal  requests  perse- 
verance is  necessary,  (as  in  the  parables  of  the  man  seeking 
bread  at  night  from  his  friend,  and  of  the  widow  importuning 
the  unjust  judge  till  she  wearies  him,)  much  more  is  it  neces- 
sary in  order  to   the  obtaining  of   such  great  mercies  for  the 


A    FUTURE    (ECUMENICAL    SYNOD.  319 

whole  Church  as  the  healing  of  schisms  which  have  grown  and 
strengthened  themselves  for  many  ages.  The  Apostles  and 
their  company  in  the  upper  chamber  on  Mount  Sion  did  not 
merely  pray  once,  and  receive  in  return  the  promise  of  the  Fa- 
ther ;  but  they  were  there  all  together  continuing  in  prayer 
{■Trpoa-xapTSf^ouvTSi,)  and  waiting  for  the  time  of  God's  good  plea- 
sure to  obtain  what  they  prayed  for.  And  so  now,  if  there  were 
only  two  or  three,  children  or  women,  it  might  be,  if  Patriarchs 
and  Bishops  are  unwilling,  who  had  grace  given  them  to  think 
such  a  thought,  and  to  agree  together  to  pray  for  union,  they 
should  look  forward,  not  to  any  immediate  sensible  result,  but 
to  the  probability  of  their  having  to  pass  their  whole  lives  in  the 
habitual  practice  of  this  concerted  intercession,  having  the  com- 
fort perhaps  of  being  joined  gradually  by  more  and  more  indi- 
viduals whose  hearts  God  should  touch,  but  leaving  their  prayers 
and  the  association  which  had  begun  with  them  to  be  continued 
after  their  deaths,  even  if  they  lived  long,  in  a  future  generation ; 
and  that  not  with  any  the  less  trust  of  being  heard  and  of  ob- 
taining the  result  in  the  end.  If  this  is  the  will  of  God,  there 
will  be  souls  found  among  the  members  of  the  Orthodox  or  Eas- 
tern Church  which  He  will  move  to  devote  themselves  to  such 
prayer.  And  though  it  may  seem  too  great  a  thing  for  an  in- 
dividual soul,  or  for  two  or  three  individual  souls,  to  seek  with 
such  faith,  "believing  that  they  shall  obtain,^'  as  to  enable 
them  to  obtain  it,  yet  they  may  consider  for  their  encouragement 
that  if  only  they  have  the  grace  to  wish  to  do  it,  they  cannot  be 
wrong  in  uniting  to  pray  for  that  for  which  their  Saviour  Him- 
self pi-ayed  so  earnestly  on  the  night  of  His  agony,  namely,  that  all 
they  who  should  believe  on  Him  (that  is  now,  who  have  believed 
on  Him)  through  the  word  of  the  Apostles  may  be  one,  as  the 
Father  is  in  Him  and  He  in  the  Father,  that  they  also  may 
even  so  be  one  in  the  Father  and  the  Son  :  that  the  world  may 
believe  and  know  that  the  Father  hath  sent  the  Son,  and  loves 
the  Church,  even  as  He  loves  the  Son.  Also  there  is  a  saying 
of  our  Lord  which  has  been  preserved  to  us  by  an  early  tradi- 
tion, though  not  written,  at  least  not  in  these  words,  which  they 
that  have  the  grace  will  do  well  to  meditate  upon,  "  Ask  the 
things  that  are  greater,  and  the  lesser  shall  he  added  unto  ijouP 
And  if  we  are  to  do  thus  in  asking  for  ourselves,  then,  no  doubt. 


320  OF    CONCERTED    PRAYERS    FOR    UNITY,    AND    OF 

also  in  our  intercessions  for  others,  and  for  the  whole  brotherhood. 
And  something  of  the  satne  kind  is  suggested  when  we  are 
taught  that  such  a  very  little  faith,  "  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed." 
is  all  that  is  required  to  move  mountains  and  cast  them  into  the 
sea,  or  to  pluck  up  sycamore  trees  {or' fr  trees)  by  the  roots,  ef 
fects  which  seem  to  our  natural  apprehensions  quite  as  im- 
probable as  a  reunion  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches. 

But  supposing  the  duty  of  prayer,  and  united  prayer,  for  the 
restoration  of  unity  to  be  admitted,  and  acted  upon  by  some  at 
least,  however  few  at  first,  among  the  Clergy  and  other  members 
of  the  Eastern  Church,  it  may  be  asked  whether  there  are  not  also 
some  human  means  to  which  they  should  look  under  Divine 
Providence  for  bringing  about  their  desire  ?  And  to  this  ques- 
tion every  well-informed  Christian  will  reply  that  what  men 
must  look  forward  to  and  desire,  and  move  one  another  to  desire 
and  prepare  for,  is  an  (Ecumenical  Council. 

Difficult  and  almost  impossible  as  the  undertaking  to  reunite 
the  Churches  so  long  divided  may  seem,  there  are  circumstances 
which  seem  to  promise  that  a  time  is  approaching  when  a  Coun- 
cil, if  convoked,  may  more  easily  meet,  and  may  deliberate  with 
more  independence  and  liberty  than  before ;  and  when  civil  Po- 
tentates and  spiritual  Primates  will  have  stronger  reasons  for 
sincerely  seeking  union  on  the  basis  of  truth  and  charity. 

On  the  one  hand  the  power  of  the  Russian  Empire  and  the  ex- 
tent of  the  Eastern  Church  is  likely  to  become  such,  that  the  Rus- 
sian Emperor  may  at  the  least  concur  as  an  equal  with  the  King- 
dom of  Italy,  and  with  other  Powers  of  the  West,  if  not  take  an 
absolute  lead,  in  the  convocation  of  the  future  Council.  This 
alone  will  secure  to  its  deliberations  a  real  liberty  and  indepen- 
dence, such  as  no  Council  attended  merely  by  distressed  Greeks 
on  the  territory  of  Latin  strangers,  and  under  their  power,  and 
importuned  by  their  own  Sovereign  for  his  political  necessities, 
could  ever  have.  The  two  parties  will  for  once  meet  as  equals. 
Nor,  however  great  may  have  been  the  extension  of  the  Eastern 
Church,  or  the  exaltation  of  the  Russian  power,  will  there  be 
any  fear  lest  the  Eastern  Church  should  be  in  a  i)osition  to  de- 
mand or  usurp  more  than  her  just  voice  and  influence,  as  an 
important  but  subordinate  jsar/  in  the  whole.  On  the  contrary, 
the  Russian  Emperor  will    have  strong  political  reasons  for  de- 


A    FUTURE    (ECUMENICAL    SYNOD.  321 

siring  a  solid  reconciliation ;  not  only  for  the  closer  political 
union  of  his  now  divided  Roman-Catholic  subjects  (amounting 
to  many  millions)  within  his  own  empire,  but  also  for  the  sake 
of  that  vast  accession  of  influence  and  importance  in  the  West 
which  he  would  gain  by  becoming  the  Emperor,  the  very  first 
power  V.  ithin  united  Christendom,  instead  of  being  as  now  merely 
a  formidable  neighbour  on  the  outside  of  Western  Christendom, 
precluded  in  many  ways  by  the  difference  of  religion  from  exer- 
cising what  would  otherwise  be  his  legitimate  influence  within  it. 
The  Russian  and  Greek  Hierarchies  too,  having  fallen  too  much 
under  the  ascendancy  of  the  civil  power  within  their  own  Eas- 
tern Communion  since  their  separation  from  the  West,  would 
have  strong  reasons  for  wishing,  if  it  could  be  done  without  pre- 
judice to  truth,  to  reconnect  themselves  with  that  part  of  Chris- 
tendom in  which  there  is  still  at  least  one  central  point,  one 
Apostolic  chair,  where  the  pastoral  authority,  as  such,  has  not 
been  entirely  prostrated  before  Kings.  As  we  read  in  the  his- 
tory of  form.er  times  that,  when  the  Greek  Emperor  was  urging 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  to  attend  tiie  Council  of  Florence, 
the  Patriarch  had  a  jmvate  reason  which  weighed  somewhat  in 
inducing  him  to  consent,  namely,  the  hope  that  his  brother  of 
the  elder  Rome  might  let  him  into  his  secret,  and  teach  him  how 
to  lighten  that  yoke  which  the  Emperors  of  Constantinople  had 
laid  upon  him  and  upon  the  other  Bishops  of  the  East. 

And  for  Rome  herself,  seeing  not  only  the  inroads  of  Protes- 
tantism and  infidelity,  but  also  the  threatening  waves  of  democ- 
racy, and  the  weakness  as  well  as  lukewarmness  even  of  those 
thrones  which  are  still  nominally  Roman-Catholic,  while  the 
whole  fabric  of  society  in  the  West  is  shaken  to  its  base,  the 
prospect  of  being  able  to  win  an  accession  so  vast  as  that  of  the 
Eastern  Church  and  the  Russian  Empire,  the  most  powerful  of 
all  existing  monarchs  for  a  civil  protector,  and  from  sixty  to 
seventy  millions  of  Christians  still  living  by  the  simple  faith  of 
the  middle  ages  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  pseudo-enlightenment 
of  the  West,  will  be  of  sufficient  importance  to  induce  the  Popes, 
who  have  the  credit  of  being  sagacious  in  matters  of  policy,  to 
seize  the  opportunity,  whenever  there  shall  appear  a  fair  prospect 
of  success,  and  to  do  all  they  can,  consistently  with  their  own 
religious  traditions  and  pretensions,  to  facilitate  union. 

Y 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

OF     THE     SEVEN     APOCALYPTIC     EPISTLES     ADDRESSED     TO    THE 
SEVEN    CHUKCHES    OF    ASIA. 

In  the  seven  Apocalyptic  Epistles  addressed  to  the  seven 
Churches  of  Asia  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  warnings  and 
encouragements  are  proposed  with  exact  fitness  not  only  to  those 
seven  local  Churches,  and  at  that  one  time,  but  also  through 
them  to  all  Churches,  to  the  universal  or  Catholic  Church,  both 
as  diffused  indefinitely  over  space,  and  as  passing  through  suc- 
cessive phases  in  time.  This  both  the  number  seven,  denoting 
universality,  and  the  reason  of  the  thing  itself  (the  whole  book 
being  written  and  preserved  for  general  instruction,)  and  the 
authority  of  ecclesiastical  tradition  confirms.  And  with  respect 
to  the  history  of  the  universal  Church  in  time,  there  is  a  certain 
order  in  the  arrangement  of  the  seven  Churches  and  the  Epis- 
tles addressed  to  them  which  shows  of  itself  that  they  were 
designed  to  be  considered  in  this  relation  also.  It  is  evident  at 
once  that  the  warning  given  in  the  first  place  to  the  Church  of 
Ephesus,  respecting  an  incipient  cooling  or  remission  from  the 
fervour  of  first  love,  suits  that  state  and  period  of  time  which 
comes  next  after  the  first  planting  of  the  faith  and  the  first  be- 
ginning of  spiritual  life  whether  in  the  individual  soul,  or  in  any 
particular  Church  or  nation,  or  in  the  Church  at  large.  It  is 
also  evident  that  the  severe  awakening  rebukes  addressed  to  the 
selfsatisfied  lukewarmness  of  the  Laodiceans  in  the  last  place 
suits  that  state  of  things  which  is  foretold  as  characteristic  of 
the  last  times  before  the  second  advent  of  Christ.  Thus  we 
have  already  a  certain  suitableness  of  the  first  and  last  of  the 
seven  Apocalyptic  Epistles  to  the  first  and  last  historical  periods  of 
the  Church  at  large,  which  is  enough  to  set  us  upon  examining 


OF    THE    SEVEN    CHURCHES    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE.         323 

whether  the  intervening  five  Epistles  may  not  also  have  a  similar 
relation  to  five  consecutive  historical  periods  intervening  between 
the  first  and  last  ages  of  Christianity. 

To  those  who  have  noticed  the  correspondence  or  analogy 
which  exists  between  nature  and  Revelation  it  will  be  no  new 
thing  to  be  told  that  there  is  often  discoverable  in  spiritual 
things  a  regular  symmetry,  or  proportion,  or  harmony  of  mea- 
sured parts  or  numbers,  answering  to  the  symmetry,  proportion, 
and  harmony  of  numbers,  lines,  sounds,  colours,  and  the  like,  in 
the  material  world.  So  the  seven  petitions  of  the  Loed's  Prayer 
form  a  symmetrical  whole,  which  may  be  represented  by  writing 
them  in  seven  parallel  lines,  thus  : — 

Hallowed   be   Thy   Name. 

Thy    kingdom    come. 

Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Give    us    this    day    our    daily    bread. 

And  forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 

And     lead     us     not    into     temptation. 

But        deliver        us        from        evil. 

The  first  petition  corresponds  as  a  parallel  with  the  last,  the 
second  with  the  sixth,  and  the  third  with  the  fifth.  The  three  first 
petitions  above  relate  to  what  is  good  ;  and  from  the  highest  and 
most  comprehensive  wish  gradually  narrow  down  to  that  which 
is  lower  and  nearer  to  the  individual  soul  that  prays  on  earth. 
The  three  last  petitions  relate  on  the  contrary  to  what  is  evil ; 
and  from  the  narrowest  contemplation  of  evil  and  that  nearest 
to  the  individual  soul  that  prays  (concerning  our  own  trespasses 
and  our  neighbour's,)  gradually  widen  and  deepen  to  the  con- 
templation of  the  lowest  depth  and  greatest  extent  of  evil,  and  to 
the  author  of  evil  himself.  The  two  contrary  triplets  of  peti- 
tions in  their  inverse  order  are  connected  in  the  centre,  as  at  a 
point,  by  the  personal  petition  for  our  own  necessary  subsistence 
for  this  day,  the  atom  which  prays,  and  which  in  some  sense  by 
free  will  is  a  centre  to  itself,  connecting  itself  with  all  that  is 
good,  (even  with  the  highest  and  infinite  Good)  above,  and  need- 
ing to  be  delivered  from  all  that  is  evil  (the  least  and  nearest  as 

Y   2 


324  OF    THE    APOCALYPTIC    EPISTLES 

well  as  the  deepest  and  most  remote)  below.  The  parallelism 
holds  good  even  to  the  least  details  in  the  sense  of  the  corres- 
ponding petitions,  though  not  in  their  words  or  letters  :  so  that 
if  the  third  petition,  which  is  neai'cst  to  the  central  point  above, 
is  divided,  and  has  a  dependent  clause,  "as  it  is  in  heaven/'  the 
fifth  petition,  which  corresponds  to  it  and  is  nearest  to  the  central 
point  below,  has  also  its  similarly  dependent  clause, "  as  we  forgive 
our  debtors."  He  who  framed  the  petitions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer 
is  the  same  God  which  appointed  the  cycles  of  the  heavens,  and 
fixed  the  sides  and  the  angles  of  every  crystallization  in  nature. 
With  a  like  symmetry  the  universal  Church  is  viewed,  as  it 
seems,  in  the  Apocalyptic  Epistles  to  the  seven  Churches  of 
Asia  under  the  form  or  image  of  a  pyramid  or  mountain ;  as  it  is 
written  in  the  book  of  Daniel  of  the  Stone  cut  out  without 
hands,  which  smote  the  idolatrous  Image  of  the  four  heathen 
Emph-es  on  its  feet  in  the  time  of  the  fourth  or  Roman  Empire, 
that  it  "  became  a  great  Mountain,  and  filled  the  whole  earth." 
And  in  traversing  the  history  of  the  universal  Church  in  time 
we  are  made  to  begin  as  it  were  from  the  bottom  of  the  Moun- 
tain on  the  one  side,  (let  us  say,  on  the  left  hand  or  Western  side, 
since  Ephesus  is  West  of  Laodicea,)  and  to  ascend  by  three 
distinct  divisions  or  stages  (imaged  by  the  Churches  of  Ephe- 
sus, Smyrna,  and  Pergamus,)  to  the  summit,  and  then,  after 
pausing  on  the  summit  itself  (represented  by  Thyatira,)  to  de- 
scend by  three  more  divisions  or  stages  on  the  other  side,  (namely, 
Sardis,  Philadelphia,  and  Laodicea,)  each  of  them  corresponding 
to  one  of  those  by  which  we  ascended,  thus : — 


4. 
Thyatiri 

a. 

Pergamus. 
Smyrna.  2.  ® 
Ephesus.  1.  (^ 

3. 

^ 

®5. 

Sardl 

#6. 

is. 
Philadelphia. 
<^  7.    Laodicea. 

Let  us  consider  then,  according  to  our  ability,  what  those 
lessons  are  which  are  addressed  to  the  successive  periods  or 
developments  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  which  so  indirectly 
contain  an  outline  of  its   history  sketched  beforehand   by  the 


ADDllESSED    TO    THE    SEVEN    CHURCHES    OF    ASIA.  325 

Head  of  the  Church  Himself.  Let  us  do  this  not  of  vain 
curiosity,  but  in  order  to  seek  the  blessing*  promised  in  the 
Apocalypse  by  applying  its  lessons  to  ourselves  ;  and  especially 
in  order  to  seek  out  and  to  apply  that  lesson  which  is  more 
especially  designed  for  the  Church  (and  in  the  Church  for  all 
Christians)  of  our  own  period  of  time. 

And  first,  before  coming  to  the  details  of  each  Message  to 
the  Churches,  we  may  remark  generally  that  as  on  the  one 
hand  in  the  selection  of  seven  distinct  Churches  in  Asia,  to 
represent  the  Catholic  Church,  there  is  no  hint  given  of  all 
Churches  being  resolvable  into  one  particular  Church,  the 
Roman,  so  neither,  on  the  other  hand,  is  there  any  thing  to 
countenance  the  modern  idea  of  Protestants  that  the  Catholic 
Church  is  an  aggregate  of  heterogeneous  communities  out- 
wardly separate  one  from  another.  Though  the  seven  Churches 
are  praised  and  blamed  in  different  degrees,  and  have  each  then- 
own  particular  characters,  they  are  yet  all  under  their  Angels  or 
Bishops,  through  whom  they  are  addressed,  in  full  outward  com- 
munion with  one  another,  under  one  Metropolitan  of  Ephesus, 
and  acknowledging  one  and  the  same  Apostle  St.  John. 

I.  Ephesus.  All  Christians  associate  historically  the  idea  of 
the  Apostolic  and  primitive  Church  with  something  like  the 
fervour  of  first  love ;  with  a  higher  measure  of  faith,  and  love, 
and  zeal,  than  could  long  continue.  And  in  those  remains 
which  have  come  down  to  us  of  the  earliest  Christian  writers  we 
find  already  confessions,  with  lamentation,  of  the  decay  or  remis- 
sion of  that  first  love.  The  name  itself  Ephesus  {"E^itro;)  seems 
connected  with  ?^s(J"«f,  the  first  efi'ort  of  starting  as  for  a  race,  or 
of  aiming  as  at  a  mark,  a  word  which  by  the  corruption  of  a 
single  vowel,  its  first  letter,  becomes  a$:a"i?,  or  remission. 

II.  Smyrna.  The  word  a-^'jpvri  signifies  myrrh  :  and  myrrh, 
we  know,  was  associated  with  the  ideas  of  bitterness  and  suffer- 
ing, of  the  embalmment  of  the  dead,  and  of  preservation  from  cor- 
ruption. And,  like  other  spices,  it  gives  out  its  odour  on  being- 
bruised.  With  what  significancy  myrrh  was  offered  to  Christ 
in  His  infancy,  and  on  the  Cross,  and  was  used  to  embalm  His 
Body,  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  explain.  We  shall  only  point 
out  that  as,  after  the  priuiitive  Church  in  the  Church  of  Ephesus 
has  been  warned  on  account  of  the  cooling  of  her  first  love,  we 


326  OF    THE    APOCALYPTIC    EPISTLES 

find  in  the  second  place  the  SmyrncEans,  who  are  praised  ivith- 
oiit  any  mixture  of  blame,  and  are  exhorted  to  persevere  and  to 
suffer  fearlessly  imprisonments  tribulations  and  death,  and  are 
promised  iu  recompense  a  crown  of  life,  so  also  in  the  history  of 
the  universal  Church,  after  the  fervour  of  the  first  age  and  its 
speedily  apparent  signs  of  declension,  our  attention  is  next 
fixed  by  the  glorious  sufferings  of  the  Martyrs,  which  came  to 
their  climax  in  the  great  persecution  of  Diocletian,  when  all  the 
House,  that  is  the  Church,  was  filled  with  the  odour  of  the 
spiritual  myrrh  that  was  bruised. 

III.  Pergamus.  The  Church  in  Pergamus  is  represented  as 
"  dwelHug  where  Satan's  seat  is  :"  For  Pergamus  was  the  capital 
of  one  of  those  four  kingdoms  which  arose  within  the  third  or 
Macedonian  Empire  upon  the  death  of  Alexander  the  Great. 
It  was  one  of  the  ''heads''  of  the  third  mystical  Beast  which 
was  four-headed;  and  by  transition*  it  became  one  of  the  heads 

*  The  following  account  of  Pergamus  is  translated  from  Strabo  : 
"  Since  we  have  now  gone  through  the  coasts  of  the  Troad  and  iEolia,  it  will 
be  next  in  order  to  run  over  the  inland  parts  up  to  the  Taurus,  keeping  to  the 
same  method.  The  honour  of  being  the  capital,  in  a  sense,  of  all  these  parts  be- 
longs to  Pergamus,  a  city  of  renown,  which  long  flourished  in  connection  with 
the  kings  of  the  Attalian  dynasty.  So  this  will  be  our  proper  point  to  start  from. 
Pergamus  was  the  treasure-fortress  of  Lysimachus  son  of  Agathocles,  one  of 
Alexander's  successors  ;  and  occupied  together  with  a  mass  of  dwelling-houses 
just  the  summit  of  the  hill,  which  is  conical,  ending  in  a  sharp  point.  The  com- 
mand of  this  fortress  with  the  charge  of  the  treasure  (which  amounted  to  nine 
thousand  talents,)  was  confided  to  a  certain  Philetserus  of  Tyana,  who  was  a 
eunuch  from  his  childhood.  This  man  for  some  time  remained  faithful  to 
Lysimachus  ;  but  at  length,  having  a  quarrel  against  his  wife  Arsinoe,  who 
slandered  liim  to  Lysimachus,  he  revolted  with  the  place  under  his  command, 
and  suited  his  behaviour  to  circumstances,  seeing  the  times  to  be  favourable  for 
such  a  speculation.  For  first  Lysimachus  was  engaged  with  troubles  in  his  own 
family,  and  was  forced  to  put  his  son  Agathocles  to  death ;  then  Seleucus 
Nikator  invaded  him  and  put  an  end  to  his  power  ;  and  was  himself  murdered  by 
Ptolemy  son  of  Ceraunus.  All  which  changes  the  eunuch  got  safely  through, 
keeping  in  his  fortress  on  the  hill-top,  and  dealing  politicly  by  promises  and  other 
attentions  or  services  with  whatever  power  was  at  the  time  strongest  and  nearest. 
And  thus  he  retained  during  twenty  years  both  the  fortress  and  the  treasure. 

"  He  had  two  brothers,  the  elder  named  Eumenes,  the  younger  Attalus. 
Eumenes  had  a  son  of  the  same  name  with  himself,  who  succeeded  his  uncle  in 
the  possession  of  Pergamus,  and  was  already  lord  and  ruler  of  the  places  and 
country  round  about  to  some  distance  :  insomuch  that  he  fought  a  pitched  battle 
near  Sardis  with  Antiochus  the  son  of  Seleucus,  and  defeated  him.  He  died 
after  a  rule  of  22  years ;  and  was  succeeded  by  his   cousin  Attalus,  son   of  his 


ADDRESSED    TO    THE    SEVEN    CHURCHES    OF    ASIA.  327 

of  that  last  Beast  which  contained  all  the  four,  and  was  one 
with  the  fourth,  and  which,  when  come  to  its  full  growth,  had 
seven  heads  answering  to  the  seven  mouths  of  the  river  of 
Egypt,  to  the  seven  nations  of  Canaan,  the  seven  hills  of  Rome, 
and  the  seven  heads  of  the  Dragon  antagonistic  to  the  seven 
horns  and  eyes  of  the  Lamb.  Whether  Pergamus  then,  or 
Constantinople  (which  it  may  seem  specially  to  foreshadow,)  or 
Rome,  or  any  other  city,  be  capitals  of  worldly  power  within  the 
last  mystical  Beast  or  Empire,  Pergamus  will  here  stand  for 
any  of  them,  or  for  all :  And  the  Church  and  her  hierarchy 
sojourning  in  such  capitals,  or  under  their  influence,  are  re- 
buked and  threatened  for  this,  that  some  of  them  ''  hold  the 
doctrine  of  Balaam,"  a  prophet  who,  knowing  better,  taught 
Balak  the  king  of  Moab  (a  people  sprung  from  incest)  to  cast 
a  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  Israel,  to  eat  things  sacrificed 
to  idols  and  to  commit  fornication.  And  here  again  in  pursuing 
the  history  of  the  Church  downwards  we  find  what  seems  to 
correspond.  For  after  the  age  of  the  Martyrs  we  come  next  to 
a  period  during  which  the  Church  and  her  hierarchy  appear  in 
close  connection  with  the  State ;  while  for  honour,  precedence, 
gain,  and  other  worldly  advantages,  the  hierarchy  are  accused 
by  contemporary  writers  of  too  often  lending  themselves  to  the 
powers  of  this  world,  to  make  the  spiritual  Israel  eat  things 
sacrificed  to  spiritual  idols,  and  to  commit  fornication  both 
spiritually  by  heresy,  and  carnally  by  a  relaxation  of  discipline. 
IV.   TInjatira.     Thus  we  have  arrived  at   the  top  or  apex  of 

uncle  of  the  same  name  by  Antiocliis  daughter  of  Achseus.  And  this  Attalus 
it  was  who  first  of  the  family  took  the  title  of  king;,  after  he  had  gained  a  great 
victory  over  the  Galatse.  He  also  made  an  alliance  with  the  Romans,  and  assisted 
them  in  their  war  against  Philip  in  conjunction  with  the  fleet  of  the  Rhodians. 
He  died  at  an  advanced  age,  after  a  reign  of  43  years,  and  left  four  sons  by 
Apollonisof  Cyzicus,  named  Eumenes,  Attalus,  Philetserus,  and  Athenseus.  Of  these 
the  three  younger  lived  as  private  persons,  the  eldest,  Eumenes,  succeeding  his 
father  in  the  kingdom.  He  too  warred  with  the  Romans  as  an  auxiliary  against 
Antiochus  the  Great,  and  against  Perseus  ;  and  received  from  the  Romans  all 
that  had  belonged  to  Antiochus  within  the  Taurus.  Before  this  the  dependencies 
of  Pergamus  had  been  only  an  inconsiderable  number  of  places,  as  far  as  the  sea 
about  the  Elaite  gulf  and  Adrammyttium.  This  king  beautified  the  city,  and 
planted  the  grove  called  the  Nicephorium,  and  set  up  temples  and  statues,  and 
libraries,  and  increased  the  city  by  his  improvements  to  its  present  extent. 
After  a  reign  of  49  years  he  left  the  crown  to  his  son  named  Attalus,  whom  he 


328  OF    THE    APOCALYPTIC    EPISTLES 

the  Mountain,  where  we  find  in  the  Church  of  Thyatira,  a  name 
connected  by  sound  with  sacrificing,  {0.1:0  tou  Sueji/,)  and  inci- 
dentally with  the  trade  of  dyeing  and  selling  purple,  a  mystery 
mure  difficult  to  understand  than  any  other  of  the  seven.  For 
while  the  praises  bestowed  upon  this  Church  imply  higher  gifts 
and  merits  and  greater  energies  than  are  ascribed  to  any  other, 
(whereas  the  Churches  of  Smyrna  and  Philadelphia,  which  alone 
are  praised  without  any  mixture  of  blame,  are  spoken  of  as 
rather  weak  and  unpretending  in  themselves,)  these  praises  are 
joined  with  warnings  and  threatenings  for  faults  which  it  is 
difficult  to  conceive  coexisting  with  such  a  character.  "  I  know," 
it  is  written,  "  thy  works,  and  charity,  and  service,  and  faith,  and 
thy  patience,  and  thy  works ;  and  the  last  to  be  more  than  the 
first."  What  great  praises  are  here  ?  And  yet,  with  all  this, 
"  He  who  hath  his  eyes  like  unto  a  flame  of  fire,  and  his  feet 
like  fine  brass  "  (that  is,  without  any  tarnish  of  rust  or  impu- 
rity,) discovers  in  this  Church  (in  whose  walk  another  eye  could 
have  seen  only  what  is  great  and  glorious,)  that  she  is  all  the 
time  suffering  a  fahe-prophetess,  called  Jezebel,  to  teach,  and  to 
seduce  the  servants  of  Christ  to  commit  fornication,  and  to  eat 
things  sacrificed  to  idols.  To  this  false-prophetess  space  is  given 
to  repent,  and  she  repents  not.  And  thereupon  she  and  they 
that  sin  with  her  are  threatened  with  the  most  terrible  judg- 
ments, and  with  great  tribulation,  and  her  children  shall  be 
killed  with  death,  whereby  all  the  Churches  shall  know  that  the 
Lord  is  He  which  searcheth  the  reins  and  the  hearts.  But  to 
the  7'est  in  Thyatira,  as  many  as  have  not  this  doctrine  concerning 
Jezebel,  and  which  have  not  known  the  depths  of  Satan,  Christ 
says  that  He  will  lay  upon  them  none  other  burden ;  only,  that 

had  by  Stratonice  daughter  of  Ariarathes,  king  of  Cappadocia.  And  as  his  son 
was  as  yet  a  mere  child,  he  appointed  his  brother  Attalus  to  be  his  guardian  and 
regent  of  the  kingdom.  This  old  man  died  after  reigning  (as  regent)  20  years 
with  great  prosperity.  For  ia  conjunction  with  Alexander  the  son  of  Antiochus 
he  subdued  Demetrius  the  son  of  Seleucus  ;  and  he  was  the  ally  of  the  Romans 
in  their  war  against  the  pseudo- Philip.  He  also  made  war  successfully  in 
Thrace,  and  subdued  there  Diegylus  king  of  Caenee  :  and  he  destroyed  Prusias. 
by  setting  against  him  his  son  Nicomedes.  And  after  all  these  successes  he  left 
the  throne  to  his  nephew  Attalus,  v.'hose  guardian  he  had  been.  This  last  was 
suruaraed  Philometor.  He  reigned  only  five  years  ;  and  then  dying  of  some  sick- 
ness left  the  Romans  his  heirs,  who  made  of  his  dominions  a  Province,  which 
they  named  Asia,  after  the  name  of  the  Continent.'' — Book  diii.  Ch.  4. 


ADDRESSED    TO    THE    SEVEN    CHURCHES    OF    ASIA.  329 

which  they  have  they  are  bidden  to  hold  fast  till  He  comes : 
And  then  to  him  that  overcometh,  aud  keepeth  the  works  of 
Christ  to  the  end^  Christ  will  give  the  most  glorious  prizes, 
equal  to  the  very  highest  ambition,  namely,  "  to  have  power  over 
the  nations,  and  to  rule  them  with  a  rod  of  iron,  and  to  break 
them  in  pieces  as  a  potter's  vessel,  even  as  Christ  Himself  has 
received  of  His  Father."  He  will  "give  also  to  him  the  Morn- 
ing Star."  These  are  the  very  things  which  in  another  sense 
would  be  the  temptations  of  an  earthborn  Lucifer. 

That  it  should  be  difficult  to  understand  and  apply  this  pro- 
phecy is  not  surprising  when  the  Scripture  itself  connects  it  with 
"  the  depths  of  Satan."  But  we  may  remark  thus  much ;  that  a 
woman  often  stands  as  the  symbol  of  a  city  or  community,  as 
Eabylon  is  elsewhere  represented  :  and  that  the  name  Jezebel 
may  afford  some  clue  to  the  interpretation.  For  Jezebel  was 
the  idolatrous  daughter  of  the  king  of  Tyre,  united  in  unholy 
marriage  to  Ahab  king  of  Israel,  whom  she  stirred  up  to  all 
manner  of  wickedness.  She  set  up  throughout  Israel  the  wor- 
ship of  Baal  of  the  Zidonians,  and  slew  thfe  prophets  of  the 
Lord,  and  especially  persecuted  Elijah  (the  messenger  of  repent- 
ance I'eserved  for  the  latter  days,)  and  practised  and  prospered, 
till  he  supposed,  though  mistakenly,  that  he  alone  was  left 
faithful  in  Israel.  But  how  can  such  deeds,  or  the  permission 
of  such  a  false-prophetess  to  teach,  coexist  with  such  praises  as 
are  given  to  the  Church  of  Thyatira  ?    This  is  indeed  a  mystery. 

If  we  look  to  Ecclesiastical  history,  the  next  great  phenomenon 
in  order  of  time  which  presents  itself,  after  the  three  preceding 
phases  of  the  nascent,  the  persecuted,  aud  the  political  Church, 
is  that  of  the  Papal  Supremacy,  as  connected  wiih  the  site  and 
spirit  of  old  Home.  And  this  may  prompt  one  to  adopt  the 
conclusion  that  the  Church  of  Thyatira  symbolizes  the  Roman 
Church  or  Communion  of  the  middle  ages,  and  the  false-pro- 
phetess Jezvibel  the  city  of  Rome  itself,  and  the  spirit  of  that 
city.  But  even  supposing  that  this  may  be  so,  we  shall  not  yet 
have  arrived  at  such  an  interpretation  as  will  suit  the  Protes- 
tants. For  there  is  nothing  said  to  justify  the  imputation  of  a 
false  faith  or  doctrinal  corruption  to  the  Angel  of  the  Church  of 
Thyatira,  or  to  that  Church  herself,  as  such.  Nor  is  it  said  of 
that  Church,  as  it  is  said  elsewhere  of  Babylon,   "  Come  out  of 


330  OF    THE    APOCALYPTIC    EPISTLES 

her,  my  licople.^'  On  the  contrary  her  gifts  and  merits  are  ex- 
tolled above  those  of  all  other  Churches.  And  they  are  not  her 
children,  as  such,  but  the  children  of  Jezebel  (whom  she  however 
permits  to  teach,)  who  are  threatened  with  death.  And  two 
kinds  of  Christians  are  spoken  of  as  existing  together  at  Thya- 
tira,  and  both  of  them  members  of  that  Church,  the  one  kind 
holding,  the  other  not  holding,  the  doctrine  concerning  Jezebel  being 
a  prophetess,  the  Angel  himself  being  with  i\\e  former  kind,  and 
suffering  the  false-prophetess  to  teach.  Yet  it  must  no  doubt 
be  admitted  that  the  punishments  threatened  against  Jezebel 
and  her  children  reflect  upon  the  Angel  and  the  Church  of 
Thyatira,  as  it  is  by  those  punishments  that  "  all  the  Churches  " 
shall  know  that  the  Lord  is  He  "  who  searcheth  the  reins  and 
the  hearts,"  and  in  the  Church  of  the  highest  gifts  and  noblest 
energies  detects  even  "  the  depths  of  Satan." 

V.  Sardis.  Descending  now,  as  on  the  other  side  of  the  hill, 
we  come  to  the  Church  of  Sardis,  which  is  rebuked  as  having  a 
name  to  live  but  being  in  fact  dead ;  and  is  warned  to  be  watch- 
ful, and  to  strengthen  the  things  which  remain  that  are  ready 
to  die ;  to  remember  how  she  had  received  and  heard,  (that  is, 
to  remember  the  first  preaching  of  the  Gospel,)  and  to  repent : 
or  the  Lord  will  come  upon  them  as  a  thief  unawares. 

And  in  fact  the  next  phase  in  Ecclesiastical  history  which  pre- 
sents itself  to  the  mind,  after  the  four  preceding,  is  that  of  a 
popular  attachment  to  the  forms,  the  ritual,  and  the  name  of  Or- 
thodoxy or  Catholicism,  of  a  general  zeal  for  the  externals  of  reli- 
gion, and  even  superstition,  joined  with  internal  deadness,  with 
a  great  and  wide-spread  departure  from  the  morality  of  the 
Gospel,  and  with  a  general  relaxation  or  neglect  of  Church  Dis- 
cipline. Individuals  may  differ  as  to  the  dates  they  will  assign 
to  this  period,  and  as  to  the  degree  in  which  they  may  be  willing 
to  admit  the  prevalence  of  the  evil :  But  nearly  all  will  admit 
that  a  change  more  or  less  has  come  over  Christianity ;  so  that 
while  outward  forms  have  been  multiplied  the  living  spirit 
within  has  decayed ;  and  a  rigid  and  often  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious adherence  to  Ecclesiastical  traditions  has  supplanted 
that  living  and  elastic  spirit  which  in  earlier  times  originated  or 
abrogated,  varied,  and  changed,  the  things  afterwards  fixed  and 
crystallised  into  a  stiff"  uniformity. 


ADDRESSED    TO    THE    SEVEN    CHURCHES    OF    ASIA.         331 

The  faults  of  the  Church  of  Sardis  (and  of  that  phase  of  the 
universal  Church  which  it  symbolizes,)  show  a  certain  relation, 
correspondence,  or  antithesis  to  those  of  the  Church  of  Perga- 
mus,  these  two  Churches  occupying  corresponding  places  the 
one  to  the  other  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Mountain.  Perga- 
mus  was  the  last  stage  before  reaching  the  summit;  and  Sardis 
is  the  first  stage  after  leaving  the  summit  to  descend  on  the 
other  side.  In  Pergamus  certain  faults  of  the  rulers  of  the 
Christian  Church  were  noted ;  in  Sardis  corresponding  faults  of 
the  people :  while  in  Thyatira,  the  apex  that  unites  the  two, 
both  the  Ecclesiastical  ruler  and  the  people,  as  a  civil  commu- 
nity, seem  to  be  alluded  to.  Sardis,  we  know,  was  a  rich  and 
luxurious  city,  once  the  capital  of  Lydia,  the  people  of  which  had 
oi'iginally  been  warlike  but  after  having  lost  their  liberty  had 
been  systematically  trained  by  their  conquerors  to  be  slaves  to 
the  corruptions  of  peace  and  indulgence ;  so  that  the  Greek 
historian  Herodotus  relates  of  it  that  all  the  women  there  were 
unchaste.  As  then  in  the  Church  of  Pergamus  we  saw  the 
Christian  hierarchy,  or  many  of  its  members,  lending  themselves 
to  civil  rulers  to  lead  the  people  into  sin,  so  here  in  the  Church 
of  Sardis  we  see  the  Christian  people  fixed  in  a  lifeless  and  hypo- 
critical religion  of  externals;  zealous  perhaps  for  kissing  pictures, 
and  worshipping  Saints,  and  for  magnifying  uncertain  miracles, 
for  multiplying  Kanons,  and  for  gabbling  over  Psalms  and 
Prayers,  but  neglecting  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  justice, 
mercy,  and  truth,  and  drowned  in  the  leprosy  of  sins  forbidden 
bv  the  Ten  Commandments  of  the  Old  Law.  What  the  real 
source  of  the  evil  is  is  shown  clearly  enough  by  the  words  used 
to  encourage  those  who  are  exceptions  to  the  prevailing  degene- 
racy :  "  Thou  hast  a  few  names  even  in  Sardis  which  have  not 
"defiled  their  garments,"  (their  Baptismal  robe  of  innocence;) 
"and  they  shall  walk  with  me  in  white,  for  they  are  worthy." 

VI.  Philadelphia.  In  Philadelphia,  a  name  signifying  bro- 
therly love,  which  of  itself  gives  a  clue  to  the  lesson  intended, 
we  come  once  more  to  a  Church  which  is  praised  without  amj 
mixture  of  blame  or  warning ;  which  in  its  position  on  the 
descending  side  of  the  hill  corresponds  to  the  Church  of  Smyrna 
on  the  ascending  side ;  and  represents  that  virtue  which  is 
especially  sought  for  by  the  Lord  and  especially  commended  in 


332  OF    THE    APOCALYPTIC    EPISTLES 

the  latter  days  which  come  next  before  the  end,^  just  as  the 
Church  of  Smyrna  symbolized  that  virtue  (of  heroic  suffering 
for  the  truth)  which  especially  characterized  those  early  cen- 
turies of  Christianity  which  followed  next  after  the  beginning. 
This  peculiar  characteristic  virtue  of  the  true  Church  of  Christ 
and  of  true  Christians  in  the  latter  ages  is  brotherly  love,  or  love 
of  the  brethren,  based  upon  the  faith  and  fear  of  God  and  the 
keeping  of  His  commandments :  that  is^  it  is  the  virtue  con- 
trary to  the  characteristic  fault  of  the  latter  ages,  when  "  the 
love  of  many  shall  have  waxed  cold/'  And  as  this  characteristic 
fault,  the  decay  and  absence  of  charity,  is  ascribed  to  moral 
causes,  "  because  iniquity  shall  abound,"  so  we  may  perceive 
that  the  secret  oil  which  shall  keep  the  lamp  of  charity  in  the 
true  Philadelphians  from  going  out  will  be  this,  that  they  strive 
to  "  abstain  from  iniquity,"  and  to  "  keep  themselves  unspotted 
from  the  world."  Their  hearts  will  not  be  given  to  eating  and 
drinking,  buying  and  selling,  marrying  and  being  given  in  mar- 
riage ;  but  they  will  be  looking  to  the  Ark  that  is  preparing, 
and  desiring  to  escape  to  the  true  Zoar. 

VII.  Laodicea.  Lastly,  having  come  down  now  to  the  foot 
of  the  Mountain,  we  can  tell  even  without  looking  at  what  fol- 
lows in  the  Apocalypse,  what  will  be  the  faults  of  the  Church, 
that  is,  of  professing  Christians,  in  the  latter  days ;  and  what 
sort  of  rebukes  and  warnings  will  be  addressed  to  them.  For  we 
know  what  Christ  and  His  servants  have  prophesied  elsewhere 
of  those  times  :  namely,  that  it  stall  be  as  in  the  days  of  Noah, 
and  as  in  the  days  of  Lot :  that  when  the  Son  of  Man  cometh 
He  shall  scarcely  find  faith  in  the  earth  :  that  before  the  end 
there  shall  be  an  apostacy,  and  the  revelation  of  the  man  of 
sin  :  that  as  the  Angels,  the  first-born  of  creation,  fell  from 
their  first  estate,  and  are  reserved  unto  everlasting  punishment, 
and  as  the  people  who  had  been  delivered  from  Egypt  afterwards 
were  destroyed  in  the  wilderness,  so  it  shall  be  with  many  even 

*  The  following  remarks  of  Strabo  are  capable  of  a  spiritual  application  : 
"  After  the  Lydians  come  the  Mysians,  and  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  ever  shak- 
ing with  earthquakes  :  for  there  is  no  cessation  of  the  walls  parting  asunder,  and 
one  part  of  the  city  after  another  suffering.  On  this  account  few  live  permanently 
in  the  city  ;  and  one  cannot  but  marvel  at  those  few  who  do,  how  they  can  be  so 
attached  to  the  place,  when  their  dwellings  are  always  in  danger.  Much  more 
must  one  wonder  at  them  who  first  built  the  city  on  such  a  site." 


ADDRESSED    TO    THE    SEVEN    CHURCHES    OF    ASIA.  333 

iindev  the  last  and  more  perfect  dispensation,  who  shall  crucify 
unto  themselves  the  Son  of  God  afresh  and  put  Him  to  an  open 
shame :  All  which  is  summed  up  briefly  by  our  Lord  in  one 
short  prophecy,  that  "  because  iniquitij  shall  abound  the  love  of 
mamj  {that  is,  of  the  apparent  majority)  shall  wax  cold."  The 
citizens  of  the  spiritual  "  Philadelphia"  and  of  the  "heavenly  Je- 
rusalem "  shall  be  few  :  those  of  Sodom  and  Egypt  and  Babylon 
many :  and  between  the  two  there  shall  be  a  Church  of  the  Lao- 
diceans,  of  Christians  enjoying  the  good  things  of  this  world, 
judging  for  themselves,  trusting  to  popular  opinion,  and  think- 
ing themselves  sufficiently  righteous  forasmuch  as,  though  not 
philadelphians,  they  are  not  openly  apostate.  Wherefore  Christ 
says  to  them,  "  /  knoio  thy  ivorks,  that  thou  art  neither  cold  nor 
hot :  I  would  thou  wert  cold  or  hot.  So  then,  because  thou  art 
lukewarm,  and  neither  cold  nor  hot,  I  ivill  spue  thee  out  of  my 
mouth.  Because  thou  sayest,  I  am  rich,  and  increased  with  goods, 
and  have  need  of  nothing;  and  knowest  not  that  thou  art  wretched, 
and  miserable,  and  poor,  and  blind,  and  naked  :  I  counsel  thee  to 
buy  of  me  gold  tried  in  the  fire,  that  thou  mayest  be  rich  :  and 
IV hit e  raiment,  thai  thou  mayest  be  clothed ;  and  that  the  shame 
of  thy  nakedness  do  not  appear ;  and  anoint  thine  eyes  ivith  eye- 
salve,  that  thou  mayest  see."  Such  is  the  terrible  severity  of 
warning  used  to  awaken  the  deadness  of  the  latter  days. 

And  now,  since  these  divine  lessons  are  perfect  in  their  literal 
application  to  the  seven  particular  Churches  chosen  as  symbols, 
as  well  as  in  their  more  general  applications  to  other  particular 
Churches,  and  even  to  individual  souls,  and  to  the  universal 
Church,  both  irrespectively  of  time  and  in  its  successive  chro- 
nological developments,  let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  actual 
history  of  those  seven  Churches  of  Asia  which  were  addressed 
from  Patmos.  Of  all  the  seven  (whatever  graces  or  merits 
may  be  mentioned  as  existing  in  any  of  them,)  every  one  is 
blamed  and  warned  or  threatened,  except  two.  Two  only,  those 
of  Smyrna  and  Philadelphia,  are  praised  without  blame,  and  re- 
ceive encouragements  and  promises  without  any  mixture  of 
threats  or  warnings  ;  the  one  representing  the  sufferings  of  the 
Martyrs  in  the  earlier  ages,  the  other  the  enduring  charity  of 
the  faithful  remnant  in  the  latter  ages  of  Christianity.  At  the 
present  day  nearly  eighteen  centuries  have  passed  since  those 


334  OF    THE    APOCALYPTIC    EPISTLES 

seven  local  Churches  were  selected  as  symbols  ;  and  we  have  no 
difficulty  in  ascertaining  from  history,  or,  if  we  please,  even  from 
the  very  sites  themselves,  what  has  been  the  result  with  respect  to 
each  of  them ;  whether  the  five,  or  any  of  i\\Q  five,  have  profited 
])ermanently  by  the  warnings  or  threatenings  addressed  to  them, 
or  the  two,  though  chosen  once  to  bear  a  type  of  unmixed  en- 
couragements and  promises,  have  since  in  their  literal  character 
of  local  Churches  been  permitted  to  fail,  and  have  been  aban- 
doned by  Him  who  addressed  them  in  such  gracious  words. 
The  answer  which  we  shall  obtain  to  our  inquiry  is  this  :  All 
the  five  which  were  in  any  degree  warned  or  threatened,  Ephesus, 
Pergamus,  Thyatira,  Sardis,  and  Laodicea,  have  long  ago  ceased 
to  exist  as  Churches.  Their  candlesticks  have  been  removed. 
Most  of  those  cities  are  now  mere  heaps  of  ruins  ;  and  of  one  or 
two  the  very  sites  are  disputed.  There  may  indeed  still  be  a 
titular  Metropolitan  of  Ephesus ;  but  Ephesus  itself  exists  no 
longer,  nor  are  there  either  Clergy  or  a  Christian  congregation 
on  its  site.  There  may  be  Christians  and  Priests  at  Pergamus; 
but  Pergamus  is  no  longer  a  Church  with  its  Angel,  but  has  long 
since  been  merged  like  Thyatira,  Sardis,  and  Laodicea,  in  another 
diocese.  Only  Smyrna  and  Philadelphia  remain  erect  amid 
surrounding  ruins;  the  types  of  patient  suffering  and  enduring 
charity.  These  two  have  preserved  an  uninterrupted  existence : 
The  candlesticks  of  these  two  have  never  been  removed  :  And 
they  bear  still  visibly,  as  they  bore  eighteen  centuries  ago,  the 
type  of  the  encouragements  and  the  promises  addressed  to  those 
virtues  which  they  represent.* 

*  The  infidel  historian  Gibbon,  describing  the  conquest  and  division  of  Ana- 
tolia among  the  Turkish  Emirs  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  has 
the  following  passage  :  "  The  maritime  country  from  the  Propontis  to  the  Mean- 
der and  the  Isle  of  Rhodes,  so  long  threatened  and  so  often  pillaged,  was  finally 
lost  about  the  thirtieth  year  of  Andronicus  the  elder.  Two  Turkish  chieftains, 
Sarukhan  and  Aidin,  left  their  names  to  their  conquests,  and  their  conquests  to 
their  posterity.  The  captivity  or  ruin  of  the  seven  Churches  of  Asia  was  con- 
summated ;  and  the  barbarous  lords  of  Ionia  and  Lydia  still  trample  on  the 
monuments  of  classic  and  Christian  antiquity.  In  the  loss  of  Ephesus  the 
Christians  deplored  the  fall  of  the  first  Angel,  the  extinction  of  the  first  candle- 
stick, of  the  Revelations  :  the  desolation  is  complete  ;  and  the  temple  of  Diana, 
or  the  church  of  Mary,  will  equally  elude  the  search  of  the  curious  traveller.  The 
circus  and  three  stately  theatres  of  Laodicea  are  now  peopled  with  wolves  and 
foxes  ;  Sardis  is  reduced  to  a  miserable  village  ;  the  God  of  Mahomet,  without  a 
rival  or  a  son,  is  invoked  in  the  mosques  of  Thyatira  and  Pergamus ;  and  the 


ADDRESSED    TO    THE    SEVEN    CHURCHES    OF    ASIA.         335 

Now  for  us,  whether  as  individuals  or  as  local  Christian  com- 
munities, every  one  of  the  seven  Apocalyptic  Epistles  has  no 
doubt  an  appropriate  lesson.  We  have  all  need  to  remember 
and  look  back  to  our  stpBcric,  the  beginning  of  our  Christianity, 
our  first  love  and  earnestness,  and  to  search  and  ask  our  own 
selves  whether  there  has  not  been  some  a'($ro-<j,  some  cooling  or 
declension.  We  have  all  need  to  think  of  the  primitive  Martyrs, 
and  to  seek  for  grace  to  enable  us  to  suffer  with  Christ  and  to 
die  with  Him  (since  we  must  all  suffer  and  die,)  even  though  we 
are  not  in  these  latter  days  tried  in  the  fires  of  bodily  persecu- 
tion, as  the  first  Christians  were.  All  those  of  the  hierarchy 
who  live  in  worldly  capitals,  or  under  their  influence,  have  need 
to  be  jealously  on  their  guard  that  they  lend  not  themselves  to 
civil  rulers  to  corrupt  and  adulterate  the  sincerity  of  the  Gospel, 
and  to  cast  for  worldly  ends  scandals  in  the  way  of  the  spiritual 
Israel.  Those  who  have  the  greatest  gifts,  the  noblest  energies, 
and  the  most  exalted  eminence  in  the  universal  Church,  may 
search  themselves  whether  there  be  no  false-prophetess,  daughter 
of  a  heathen  power,  whom  they  are  suffering  to  teach ;  to  whom 
a  long  time  has  been  allowed  for  repentance,  and  she  has  not 
repented.  The  Christian  peoj)le  everywhere  may  search  and  ex- 
amine themselves  whether  they  are  not  formalists  and  hypocrites 
in  their  religion  or  superstition ;  whether  they  have  not  a  name 
of  Orthodoxy  or  Catholicism  to  live,  while  they  are  really  dead 
by  not  keeping  the  commandments  of  God's  Law.  All  these 
lessons  are  still  evidently  more  or  less  appropriate  or  necessary 
for  all  Christians,  or  for  some,  for  all  Churches  or  for  some, 
according  to  their  particular  states  and  circumstances.  But  the 
special  lesson  and  instruction  intended  fur  us,  and  for  our  aye  of 
the  Christian  world,  is  to  be  found  under  the  symbol  of  Phila- 

populousness  of  Smyrna  is  supported  by  the  foreign  trade  of  the  Franks  and  Ar- 
menians."  [Yet  Sniyrna'h?i&  been  preserved  as  a  Church  with  its  Bishop,  Clergy, 
and  laity,  without  any  break  to  the  present  day.]  "  Philadelphia  alone  has 
been  saved  by  jirophecy,  or  courage.  At  a  distance  from  the  sea,  forgotten  by 
the  Emperors,  encompassed  on  all  sides  by  the  Turks,  her  valiant  citizens  de- 
fended their  religion  and  freedom  above  fourscore  years  ;  and  at  length  capitulated 
with  the  proudest  of  the  Ottomans.  Among  the  Greek  colonies  and  Churches  of 
Asia,  Philadelphia  is  still  erect,  a  column  in  a  scene  of  ruins  ;  a  pleasing  ex- 
ample that  the  paths  of  honour  and  safety  may  sometimes  be  the  same." — 
Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Ch.  Ixiv. 


336         OF    THE    SEVEN    CHURCHES    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE. 

delphia.  All  the  evils  which  abound,  the  vast  and  long  standing 
schism  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches,  the  consequent  mul- 
tiplication of  more  recent  heresies  and  schisms,  the  increase  of 
doubt,  indifference,  infidelity,  and  materialism,  and  the  deluge 
of  lawlessness  and  immorality  which  has  flooded  society, — all 
are  traceable  (the  former  directly,  and  even  the  last  by  reaction) 
to  that  one  root  of  the  declension  of  charity.  And  the  one  only 
remedy  or  antidote  for  all  is  for  those  who  live  after  the  law  of 
Christ  to  be  more  and  more  earnest  in  loving  one  another. 
Let  us  only  seek  to  have  our  lot  with  the  PMlcdelphians,  and  we 
shall  not  be  in  danger  either  from  the  self-complacent  lukewarm- 
ness  of  the  last  times,  that  is,  of  the  mystical  Laodiceans,  nor 
froDi  those  older  sins  of  formalistic  hypocrisy  in  the  people,  or 
worldly  subservience  to  civil  powers  in  the  clergy,  which,  though 
the  period  of  their  first  development  is  ancient,  are  still  living 
and  widespread  evils,  and  far  from  having  passed  away.  We 
may  hope  too,  though  our  lot  be  in  the  Church  of  Thyatira,  to 
be  among  those  who  "  have  not  that  doctrine''  who  are  preserved 
from  "  knowing  the  depths  vf  Satan''  and  to  be  saved  as  mem- 
bers of  that  Church  without  becoming  children  of  the  false- 
prophetess  whom  she  suffers  to  teach. 

"  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and 
have  not  charity,  I  am  become  as  sounding  brass,  or  a  tinkling 
cymbal.  And  though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  under- 
stand all  mysteries,  and  all  knowledge ;  and  though  I  have  all 
faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have  not  charity,  I 
am  nothing.  And  though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the 
poor,  and  though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not 
charity,  it  profiteth  me  nothing.  Charity  suffereth  long,  and  is 
kind;  charity  envieth  not;  charity  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not 
puffed  up,  doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly ;  seeketh  not  her  own  ; 
is  not  easily  provoked ;  thinkcthno  evil;  rcjoicethnot  in  iniquity, 
but  rejoiceth  together  in  the  truth  ;  beareth  all  things,  belie veth 
all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things ;  maketh  herself  all 
things  to  all  men,  if  by  any  means  she  may  save  some.  Charity 
never  faileth.  And  the  Christian  virtues  being  three.  Faith, 
Hope,  and  Charity,  the  greatest  of  these  is  Charity.^'  (I  Cor. 
xiii.,  and  ix.  22.) 


JoSlil-H   .MASTi;HS  ANU  CO.,  PRINTERS,  j\  LUEHSli  ATK  STUKKT. 


